{"id":629173,"date":"2026-02-14T10:35:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T08:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=629173"},"modified":"2026-02-14T10:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T08:41:07","slug":"increased-pressure-for-south-africa-to-fast-track-rules-that-will-allow-starlink-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/629173-increased-pressure-for-south-africa-to-fast-track-rules-that-will-allow-starlink-launch.html","title":{"rendered":"Increased pressure for South Africa to fast-track rules that will allow Starlink launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson Karabo Khakhau has reiterated the party’s call to enable equity equivalent investment as an alternative to South Africa’s BEE ownership requirements in the ICT sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, for a foreign company to get a licence to operate in South Africa’s ICT sector, it must be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups (HDGs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an alternative, communications minister Solly Malatsi wants to enable equity-equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) in the ICT sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2025, he instructed the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to amend its BEE rules for the ICT sector via a notice published in the Government Gazette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khakhau renewed the party’s support for EEIPs in the ICT sector in an interview with 702 earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about the DA’s expectations for the 2026 State of the Nation Address, she said BEE would be a key topic. She explained that BEE is a contentious issue within the Government of National Unity (GNU).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khakhau said the DA hoped its push to change BEE regulations would make enough of an impact for President Cyril Ramaphosa to address the topic as a priority in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said President Cyril Ramaphosa needed to answer a critical question: how do we strengthen empowerment without sacrificing investment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For example, Elon Musk says he wants to come to South Africa, but he does not want to share ownership,” Khakhau said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this, she referred to the Musk-owned SpaceX wanting to bring its Starlink satellite broadband service to South Africa, which he has been unwilling to do due to HDG ownership restrictions for telecoms licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Okay, you don’t want to share your ownership or your shares. Then build a school, build a clinic, help us fix our water and sanitation infrastructure,” she said. “That’s equity equivalence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khakhau added that the DA won’t support allowing Musk and Starlink to operate in South Africa without at least completing these equity equivalence projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Nobody comes into your house and tells you what to do. When you come to South Africa, you obey South Africa’s rules,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk takes aim at race-based laws<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Musk has repeatedly said on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), that Starlink can’t launch in South Africa because of his skin colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His latest criticism came in early January 2026 in response to a video where he criticised laws that treat people differently based on the colour of their skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Starlink isn’t permitted to obtain an Internet service provider operating licence in South Africa because he is not black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has since deleted the post. However, in another post, he said he was extremely opposed to all anti-Black and anti-White laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There should be a fair and even playing field,” Musk said. “The facts are there for anyone to observe. South Africa now has more anti-White laws than there were anti-Black laws under Apartheid.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was referring to an index<\/a> developed by the Institute of Race Relations, which found that South Africa currently has more race-based laws in operation than at the height of Apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starlink itself has repeatedly voiced its support for B-BBEE in South Africa. However, its primary point of contention is the 30% HDG ownership requirement for telecoms licensees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starlink has advocated for EEIPs to be recognised as an alternative mechanism to qualify for telecommunications licences in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way this could happen is through Malatsi’s instruction to Icasa to amend regulations to align with the amended B-BBEE ICT Sector Code and the government’s national economic inclusion policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came after months of analysing extensive public comment on his proposed policy direction before making it final. Malatsi said over 90% of interested parties expressed their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Only one step remains: Icasa must implement the directive,” SpaceX has said. “By correcting just four sentences in the licensing regulations, Starlink service could be available nationwide within weeks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company emphasised that it has not asked and would not receive any special treatment. “Once licensed, Starlink will operate as a fully B-BBEE-compliant entity,” it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The DA has renewed calls for South Africa to allow equity equivalent investment programmes for telecommunications network licences in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":493567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18668],"tags":[12521,18909,11373,100040,103334,11375,48987],"class_list":["post-629173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","category-government","tag-b-bbee","tag-democratic-alliance-da","tag-elon-musk","tag-equity-equivalent-investment-programmes-eeips","tag-karabo-khakhau","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629295,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629173\/revisions\/629295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}