Ramaphosa meets with Elon Musk

President Cyril Ramaphosa has met with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in New York to discuss investment in South Africa.

The South African government announced the meeting in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The president is visiting the US to attend the UN General Assembly.

“In New York: President Cyril Ramaphosa meeting with Elon Musk (owner of this very platform X) talking investment in South Africa during the United Nations General Assembly,” it said.

It also included photos of the pair together.

According to an SABC News report, the meeting was long in the making and held behind closed doors. Ramaphosa described the meeting with Musk as positive, adding that further discussions will likely occur.

News of the meeting comes after Ramaphosa revealed earlier this month that the South African government was in talks with Musk’s SpaceX regarding its satellite communication service Starlink.

“I have had discussions with him and have said, Elon, you become so successful and you’re investing in a variety of countries, I want you to come home and invest here,” said Ramaphosa.

“He and I are going to have a further discussion.”

The president explained that Starlink had approached the South African government.

Musk recently told a South African on Twitter/X that Starlink is waiting for regulatory approval to launch in the country.

“Try to online school two kids with a 6Mbps line. It is the only Wi-Fi option in the area, at R900 per month,” the user said in a post directed at Musk. “We really can do with Starlink in SA. Please.”

He included a photo of a fixed wireless-access antenna mounted to the top of a wind pump.

Soon after Ramaphosa’s announcement, MyBroadband learnt that at least one of Starlink’s directors responsible for securing regulatory approvals had travelled to South Africa.

Our source didn’t reveal the director’s name. The likely candidates are Ryan D. Goodnight, Ben MacWilliams, or both.

Goodnight is Starlink’s senior director of global licencing and market activation, while MacWilliams is the company’s market access lead for the African continent.

Starlink needs network, service, and spectrum licences from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to launch locally.

However, uncertainty surrounding South Africa’s rules regarding local ownership of communications services presents a hurdle.

Currently, regulations require that a licensee operating a national network or selling Internet services nationally must be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.

The uncertainty stems from new regulations Icasa published in 2021, which included provisions that changed this requirement to 30% black ownership.

However, following industry backlash, Icasa suspended these specific provisions when it published the regulations.

It may put them into force at any moment or withdraw them entirely. Currently, there is no clarity from the regulator on what it intends to do about the controversial regulations.

Moreover, Icasa has not issued new communications network and service licences for 14 years.

Starlink could only obtain these by buying them from someone or acquiring a company that has licences, or by working through a local company that already possesses the required licences.

Should it wish to operate in South Africa directly, it would need to establish a local entity with a BEE partner.

This is so the ownership and control of the relevant licences could be transferred to Starlink.

Icasa will only approve such a transfer if the receiving entity meets its ownership requirements.