Elon Musk Is Steamrolling Racial Equality Rules in South Africa

Global telecommunication companies operating in South Africa do so through partnerships with local businesses that are partly owned by Black citizens. That’s to comply with equality rules that were instituted after the end of apartheid. SpaceX has spent the past year trying to get those rules changed.

The company, which is seeking to offer its Starlink satellite internet service in South Africa, has been lobbying policymakers on the country’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) rules, which require communications businesses to maintain at least 30% local Black ownership. Elon Musk has described the rules as “openly racist” and last year took his complaints to his social media platform, X: “Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black.” This has made him a target of fury among people in his birth country, but it also appears to be working.