South Africa sends a Starlink plea to Elon Musk
· The South African
Elon Musk has been urged to work with South Africa to finally bring Starlink to the country, with government making a fresh appeal over the long-running licensing dispute.
Deputy Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele made the direct appeal to Musk at a Bloomberg-hosted event near Cape Town on Monday.
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“Can you get along with us? Work with us in this journey of minimising inequality?” Gungubele asked.
“I hope Elon is listening.”
Starlink has yet to launch commercially in South Africa, with the regulatory impasse involving requirements around ownership of telecommunications operators.
South African licensing regulations require individual telecommunications licensees to have at least 30% equity ownership by historically disadvantaged individuals.
The requirement is rooted in post-apartheid economic transformation policies aimed at addressing exclusion under apartheid.
Elon Musk has previously criticised the requirement.
In an April post on X, he said he could not obtain an operating licence in South Africa “simply because I am not Black.”
South Africa won’t allow Starlink to be licensed, even though I was BORN THERE, simply because I am not Black!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 12, 2026
We 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.… https://t.co/m6G1ZQcC1C
‘What is 30% share?’
Gungubele sought to make the case that complying with the ownership requirement would still leave Elon Musk and SpaceX with substantial economic opportunities in South Africa.
“What is 30% share if you take into account the 70% value that you are going to make in terms of yields and profits?” he said.
He also pointed to Pretoria-born Musk’s South African roots, saying the billionaire could make a significant investment in the country of his birth.
The deputy minister said government was continuing discussions with Starlink.
“We’re engaging on all those issues, and we hope to find one another,” Gungubele said.
Starlink remains unavailable
The dispute has continued despite attempts to find alternative ways for foreign technology companies to meet South Africa’s economic-transformation requirements.
Starlink has previously argued that its global structure makes conventional local equity ownership difficult and has pointed to equity equivalent investment programmes as a possible route to meeting South Africa’s transformation objectives.
The South African government has also considered policy mechanisms that could allow alternative forms of economic participation while maintaining transformation requirements.
Starlink attraction
For South African consumers, the attraction of Starlink is its use of a network of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide internet connectivity without relying entirely on conventional terrestrial infrastructure.
That could offer another connectivity option, particularly in areas where fixed-line or mobile services are limited or unreliable.
For now, however, there is no commercial Starlink launch in South Africa, and the ownership and licensing questions remain unresolved.
The latest comments from Gungubele indicate that discussions between government and Starlink are continuing, with the deputy minister publicly signalling that Pretoria remains open to finding a way forward.
How – if at all – is this problem going to be solved?
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