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By Victoria Fakiya

Lagos, Nigeria: Elon Musk jumped on X, setting the Internet on fire. The SpaceX CEO accused South Africa of blocking Starlink’s licence purely on racial grounds, claiming he was offered ways to bypass ownership rules through misrepresentation or even bribes, which he says he rejected “on principle”.

He didn’t stop there, calling South African politicians “unashamedly racist” and urging a global boycott. As of now, the government hasn’t officially responded.

At the centre of all this is South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) policy, which requires foreign telecom companies to have at least 30% local Black ownership before getting licensed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). 

That’s a problem for Starlink because SpaceX typically keeps full ownership of its operations globally. Instead of equity, the company proposed a workaround: a R500 million investment to connect 5,000 rural schools, potentially reaching over 2 million students.

But here’s where things get messy. Regulators have repeatedly pointed out that Starlink hasn’t actually submitted a licence application yet. 

So while Musk says the service is being “blocked,” the process hasn’t even formally started. That makes the whole situation less straightforward than it sounds, especially as the regulatory pathway itself is still being worked out.

Meanwhile, the demand is obvious. More than 18 million South Africans still lack high-speed Internet, and the government wants to connect 5.5 million more households by 2026. 

Starlink is already active in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Rwanda, making South Africa’s absence stand out even more. The irony (for fun)? Musk himself was born in Pretoria, yet his service is live across neighbouring countries while South Africa remains offline.

This standoff has been building for a while. Through 2025, there were attempts to find middle ground, including proposals to allow investment-based alternatives to ownership rules. 

Solly Malatsi even pushed for regulatory changes, but the process is slow and still ongoing. With telecom giants like MTN and Vodacom raising concerns, and political groups threatening legal action, this is far from over. 

What happens next won’t just affect Starlink; it’ll shape how global tech companies navigate Africa’s biggest markets.

This article was published earlier on Techpoint Africa

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