JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa on Friday rejected a claim by multibillionaire Elon Musk that his Starlink satellite company could not operate in the country because he is not Black, and its telecoms regulator said Starlink had not applied for a licence. In his latest rebuke of the country where he was born and went to school, Musk wrote on X, which he also owns: "Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I'm not black" https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-africa-rejects-musk-claim-171020864.html I have many friends in SA and as their foreign affairs dept said, Musk has not applied for a licence to operate there because all foreign companies supplying local services have a requirement to be 30 percent owned by historically disadvantaged groups. Musk's race is irrelevant to the rule. If SpaceX were 100% Black-owned but still foreign-owned, it would still need to meet the 30% local ownership requirement. His claim that Starlink is blocked "because he is not Black" is more Elon lying to cry victim and frame the issue dishonestly to garner sympathy. Musk’s move via Trump, looks like a calculated effort to use Trump’s executive order to cut off SA aid and grant asylum to whites (the "white genocide" nonsense) as leverage to open the South African market to Starlink. It's a quid pro quo.
I should add that South Africa is easily the largest market for Starlink in Africa as it has vastly more middle class to affluent who can afford the monthly Starlink subscription fees. Other large African markets are less viable. Nigeria: Already Starlink’s biggest African market, but lower per capita income limits growth. Egypt: Already has relatively good infrastructure and strict state control over the internet. Ethiopia: Government regulation and internet restrictions make it a challenge. DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya: Growing markets but not as wealthy as SA. Starlink could hit $2B+ annual revenue in South Africa alone, making it one of its most profitable non-U.S. markets. That’s why Musk is lying so hard to break into it.