Only 1.7% of South African rural households can access the internet—a digital apartheid that Starlink could help fix. But first, SpaceX must navigate the country’s 30% Black ownership requirement for telecom operators, a post-apartheid rule designed to redistribute economic power that now blocks the satellite internet service from launching.
SpaceX isn’t trying to dodge South Africa’s empowerment goals entirely. Instead, the company wants regulators to accept “equity equivalent investment programs“ as an alternative to direct shareholding. In their regulatory submission filed with authorities, SpaceX states: “Equity equivalent investment programs will provide much-needed regulatory certainty and foster investment in infrastructure. Uniform empowerment regulation will motivate both current and prospective operators to expand their business activities and network reach.”
The stakes extend beyond corporate maneuvering. Starlink has pledged free satellite internet to 5,000 rural schools, potentially connecting 2.4 million students who currently learn without reliable digital access. This commitment forms the centerpiece of SpaceX’s argument for investment-based compliance rather than equity transfer—essentially arguing that infrastructure beats ownership when addressing inequality.
Opposition parties suspect a workaround designed for foreign tech giants. They argue that allowing investment alternatives risks gutting hard-won empowerment rules while local companies still must comply with ownership requirements. It’s the regulatory equivalent of having different rules for different players, which tends to create exactly the kind of resentment these policies were designed to address.
Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has already gazetted a draft policy direction encouraging regulators to consider investment programs, following precedents from the automotive sector where BMW, Ford, and Toyota use similar schemes. But according to legal experts familiar with similar cases, challenges could delay final approval by up to two years—time South Africa’s digitally excluded communities don’t really have.
The broader question isn’t whether SpaceX deserves special treatment, but whether South Africa’s 2030 universal broadband goals can survive regulatory deliberations. Sometimes the perfect becomes the enemy of the connected, and those rural students might prefer Starlink’s satellites to prolonged policy debates.
