Elon Musk accuses South African government of racism against anyone who isn’t black

Frustrated with South Africa’s telecommunication sector ownership regulations, Elon Musk has claimed that “the South African government is super racist against anyone who isn’t black.”

This is despite the American company not applying for an operating licence from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).

Musk was responding to a tweet explaining what the satellite Internet provider could offer the country in terms of connectivity for rural areas and schools.

Starlink had previously identified South Africa as one of the first countries for its planned rollouts, with pre-orders for the service set to launch in 2021.

However, in March that year, ICASA issued new regulations that would change ownership equity laws for companies operating in the country’s telecommunications sector.

This states that applicants for national network infrastructure and communications service provider licences must have 30% historically disadvantaged group (HDG) equity ownership.

According to South African legislation, people who qualify as HDGs are women, people with disabilities, and those identified as black.

Six months later, Starlink pushed back its planned launch date in South Africa to 2023. Then, in September 2022, this was changed to “unknown”. It has yet to change.

While the company did not explicitly state that the change of ownership regulations were the cause of the postponed rollout, MyBroadband reports that many industry insiders claim this was probably the case.

South Africa is one of only nine countries on the continent with an “unknown” launch date, while the rest either already have access to the service or rollout is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.

The situation has led to increased criticism of the telecommunications sector’s complex ownership regulations, which Communications Minister Solly Malatsi is attempting to simplify.

South Africa’s telecommunications sector is currently clouded by regulatory confusion, with licence applicants having to comply with two sets of ownership rules.

The first is ICASA’s 30% HDG equity ownership rule as outlined in the Electronic Communications Act (ECA).

The second is the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), which requires that a company operating in the sectornhave 30% black ownership.

In this context, people who qualify as black include Africans, Coloureds, Indians, and Chinese people (since 2008).

Therefore, law firm Webber Wentzel argues that there is dissonance between these two sets of ownership rules.

“Alignment between the Icasa rules and the B-BBEE framework would allow licensees to measure the extent to which black people have an ownership interest (or deemed ownership interest) based on a single set of rules,” the firm said.

Government response and an alternative to ownership rules

Musk has been hammering claims of racial injustice in South Africa for some time, which have also been echoed by US President Donald Trump, who have taken them a step further by claiming there is an ongoing genocide against white Afrikaners in the country.

South Africa has outright denied Trump’s claims, saying that they have been influenced by “a sustained campaign of disinformation by groups and individuals within our country, in the US and elsewhere.”

As for Musk’s allegations, President Cyril Ramaphosa met with him in May “on issues of misinformation and distortions” about South Africa.

The Presidency said that during the meeting, “the President reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality.”

Regardless, in May 2025, Minister Malatsi issued a policy directive to make the telecommunications sector more conducive to foreign investment by aligning the ECA with the B-BBEE ICT Sector Code.

The directive proposed Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs), which provide an alternative to the ownership requirements.

EEIPs enable foreign companies to contribute to South Africa’s development goals by allowing them to invest in local infrastructure, skills development, and enterprise support.

In June 2025, SpaceX committed to spending R500 million to provide free broadband Internet to schools in South Africa to gain local approval for the service.

However, Malatsi, who is a member of the Democratic Alliance, known for its anti-BEE stance, has received resistance from fellow parliamentarians for his proposal.

Many have called the move an attempt to allow foreign companies to bypass BEE regulations, as it was published two days after President Cyril Ramaphosa met with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

He has also said that EEIPs have received the approval of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

“When we made the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies’ (DCDT) submission for the MTDP, we included the full introduction and recognition of EEIPs in the ICT sector,” he said in an interview earlier this year.

“Through a series of engagements, the MTDP was adopted by the cabinet, and that is a matter of record.”

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies aims to have the policy completed by the end of March 2026. However, integrating it into ICASA’s licensing regulations could take even longer.

Despite this, ICASA has repeated the fact that Starlink is yet to apply for an operating or infrastrcuture licence.