By Frank Botha
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has alleged that his internet-satellite service, Starlink, was given the opportunity to “bribe” its way to a telecoms licence in the country, by pretending that a black person ran the company’s local entity.
Talks on launching Starlink in South Africa stalled last year after Musk and US President Donald Trump ramped up public rhetoric against policies such as BEE laws, which mandate that foreign-owned telecoms companies allocate at least 30% of local equity to historically disadvantaged groups. Musk, who is South African-born, claimed Starlink was barred from operating in South Africa because he is not black, an allegation South African officials dismissed.
In a post on his social media platform X over the weekend, Musk once again pushed the same rhetoric that the main reason Starlink could not launch in his home country was that he was not black.
“South Africa won’t allow Starlink to be licensed, even though I was born there, simply because I am not black! 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,” Musk posted. He said racism “should not be rewarded, no matter to which race it is applied. Shame on the racist politicians in South Africa. They should be shown no respect whatsoever anywhere in the world and shunned for being unashamedly racists! Racist laws in South Africa are evil, and the politicians that push these are shameful, disgusting people,” Musk said in another post on X.
Head of Diplomacy Clayson Monyela said that Musk is lying about the bribery claims. “There are situations where you go to report a crime or an attempted crime, but there’s certainly no request from the South African government for any bribe, and it’s asking every company that wants to do business in South Africa to comply with the law.”
“It’s pure lies, a fabrication. All the companies are complying, and he wants to be treated specially. Why? And yet, America is doing the same thing. Look at what they did to TikTok,” said Monyela.
