South Africa needs Starlink

Billionaire Johann Rupert has told U.S. President Donald Trump that South Africa needs satellite broadband service Starlink.

Rupert was speaking at a publicly broadcast meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump in the White House.

Trump said that Rupert and South African golfing champions Ernie Els and Retief Goosen asked to be at the meeting.

They joined Ramaphosa’s delegation, which included the agriculture minister and DA leader John Steenhuisen, state security minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and foreign affairs minister Ronald Lamola.

Trump asked Rupert to speak towards the end of the meeting after the U.S. President fielded questions about his allegations that a genocide of white farmers was happening in South Africa.

He also played a video showing several minority party members making remarks about confiscating land from white farmers, and Julius Malema singing “Kill the Boer”.

The video also included a flyover of a place where people reportedly plant crosses to memorialise those who were killed in farm attacks.

Several members of Ramaphosa’s delegation, including Steenhuisen and Rupert, explained that South Africa has a violent crime problem that cuts across racial lines.

However, rather than getting embroiled in a debate about misinformation, disinformation, and the definition of genocide, they focused on solutions.

Rupert backed a comment from Ramaphosa to Trump that South Africa needs U.S. technology to help combat the scourge of violent crime.

He specifically pointed to Elon Musk, who was also in the room, and said that Starlink was one of those technologies.

“We need Starlink at every little police station. We need drones. I actually got drones donated for the Peace Parks to stop elephant and rhino poaching,” Rupert said.

“His predecessor stopped the importation because he said the United States would spy on us,” he added, referring to former President Jacob Zuma.

Rupert struck a pleading tone and brought up common history that he and Trump shared.

“If you can help us… Remember, sir, you and I lived in New York in the 70s,” he said.

“We never thought New York would be what it became. Two commissioners, a tough mayor…”

Rupert is likely referring to the reforms implemented in New York under former mayor Rudy Giuliani and former police commissioner Bill Bratton.

This included a strategy based on James Q. Wilson’s “broken windows” approach, referring to fixing visible signs of criminal behaviour to help reduce crime overall, as well as cracking down on relatively minor offences.

“We need your help to stop this awful killing, but it’s across the board,” Rupert said.

Starlink’s BEE hurdle

SpaceX likely paused plans to launch Starlink in South Africa due to regulatory uncertainty around ownership requirements for telecommunications licences.

The Electronic Communications Act states that network operators and service providers with a national footprint must be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.

However, Icasa published regulations in 2021 that would make anything less than 30% black ownership insufficient.

Several industry stakeholders warned Icasa during the public consultation period for the regulations that they would have severe unintended consequences.

For example, many small, medium, and micro enterprises offering services nationally would have to quit the industry or operate unlawfully.

Icasa published the regulations anyway, but suspended them indefinitely. This left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the industry, as the rules could be enacted or withdrawn at any moment.

While this uncertainty is frustrating, Starlink could launch in South Africa by partnering with a local entity with access to the necessary licences.

However, it appears that SpaceX is not interested in working through middlemen in South Africa.

An alternative that is in the works is equity equivalents for multi-nationals in the telecoms sector.

These will allow companies like SpaceX to comply without requiring specific ownership demographics.

However, implementing equity equivalent programmes is not a short-term solution. It would take years for them to go through the necessary process.

Government has tacitly acknowledged this, as this project is in the new Medium Term Development Plan 2024–29, published in March, as a mid-term goal.