{"id":641540,"date":"2026-04-16T22:21:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=641540"},"modified":"2026-04-16T22:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:25:40","slug":"elon-musk-calls-for-sanctions-against-south-africa-due-to-racist-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/641540-elon-musk-calls-for-sanctions-against-south-africa-due-to-racist-laws.html","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk calls for sanctions against South Africa due to racist laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Billionaire Elon Musk said that if South Africa doesn\u2019t change its super racist Apartheid 2.0 laws, the country must be sanctioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk is a vocal critic of South Africa\u2019s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws, particularly as they relate to the licensing of his satellite internet service, Starlink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Electronic Communications Act (ECA) requires telecommunications licensees to be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These historically disadvantaged groups include black, Indian, and coloured people, women, and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, a service owned by a white male may not launch in South Africa without giving away part of the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk has traditionally resisted ceding equity in his companies, like Starlink, to local partners to satisfy these requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk even alleged that he was offered opportunities to bribe his way into a license and launch Starlink in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa won\u2019t allow Starlink to be licensed, even though I was born there, simply because I am not black,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were offered many times the opportunity to bribe our way to a license by pretending that a black guy runs Starlink SA, but I have refused to do so on principle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk added in his post that racism should not be rewarded, regardless of which race it is applied to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShame on the racist politicians in South Africa. They should be shown no respect whatsoever anywhere in the world and shunned for being unashamedly racist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe South African laws are literally super racist, plain and simple. South Africa now has more anti-White laws than Apartheid had anti-Black laws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is a shameful disgrace to the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela, who sought to have all races treated equally in South Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that BEE laws stifle foreign direct investment and prevent South Africans, particularly those in rural areas, from accessing high-speed internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The standoff remains a significant point of tension, with Musk calling for international sanctions against South African politicians who support these laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa defends BEE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
President Cyril Ramaphosa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa defended BEE, saying Elon Musk is being dishonest by claiming that these laws are racist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the social media brouhaha from Elon Musk, I pay very little attention to that because I know our laws are not racist,\u201d Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are empowerment laws meant to empower people in our country who were discriminated against.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the people who were discriminated against include black people, in particular Africans, Coloureds, and Indians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiscrimination was also perpetrated against the women of our country. And may I say, white women were also affected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said that South Africa\u2019s BEE laws seek to implement the Constitutional imperative to redress past imbalances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo do so, the Constitution has empowered us to pass laws that are empowering, not racist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President added that it was interesting that Elon Musk does not talk about the racist laws of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa also denied that BEE laws were race-based. \u201cHe will never find race-based laws in our legislation. There are laws that are empowering all our people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President also highlighted that BEE makes provision for international companies that have difficulty complying with the equity ownership portion of the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are given an opportunity through the Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes, where they can do other things that are empowering,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt could be in enterprise development, it could be in education, it could be in community development and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said 600 U.S.-based companies were complying this way, including blue-chip companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, singling out our BEE laws is, to me, quite dishonest. Because if you look at our laws, you\u2019ll find that they\u2019re empowering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billionaire Elon Musk said that if South Africa doesn\u2019t change its super racist Apartheid 2.0 laws, the country must be sanctioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":641542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[82505,20517,11373,48987],"class_list":["post-641540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-black-economic-empowerment-bee","tag-electronic-communications-act-eca","tag-elon-musk","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641540"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641540"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641546,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641540\/revisions\/641546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}