South Africa: Why Malatsi Believes Bypassing Bee Rules for Starlink Is Good for SA

By Lindsey Schutters

The minister of communications' move to bypass BEE rules for Starlink sparks controversy, challenging South Africa's equity policies amid misleading data and potential threats to digital sovereignty.

There's a statistic that you will read a lot as the fallout from Communications Minister Solly Malatsi's latest directive to skirt Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) ownership policy for Starlink continues: 73% of ANC voters don't support BEE policy, according to the Institute of Race Relations' latest survey.

To call the study flawed would be an understatement, but it is another step on the path to undermining South Africa's equity aspirations -- and it happened just before this latest bending to Elon Musk's will.

The fact that the PR agency that invited me to SpaceX regional head Ryan Goodknight's fireside at Africa Tech Festival sent me the policy directive an hour before the Department of Communication and Digital Technologies' official WhatsApp speaks to the game that is afoot.

Not standing down

The Presidency has certainly noticed the pressure. Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya didn't hold back in a statement on the weekend, accusing Musk of "deliberate dishonesty" regarding the regulatory landscape. "He thinks he can bully us into submission... We will not be bullied!"

There's an information war raging, and it's time to set the record straight.

Let's start with that 73% figure, because it is the foundational lie upon which this...

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