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JOHANNESBURG — SpaceX’s Starlink is edging closer to entering South Africa after years of regulatory and political friction, with the satellite internet operator now engaging directly with the country’s telecommunications regulator over the licensing and ownership framework governing its potential launch.

The latest engagement marks a shift in Starlink’s approach. Rather than simply challenging South Africa’s regulatory regime, the company is seeking clarity from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) on how existing ownership, licensing and spectrum requirements apply to satellite operators.

Ryan Goodnight, SpaceX’s senior director for market access and development, appeared before ICASA as the company seeks to establish a regulatory pathway into one of Africa’s largest telecommunications markets.

The development could bring an end to a dispute that has kept Starlink out of South Africa while the service has expanded rapidly across the continent. Nigeria became Starlink’s first African market in January 2023, followed by a succession of markets including Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. By 2026, the service had expanded into more than two dozen African countries, leaving South Africa as one of the continent’s most significant markets still without commercial Starlink access.

Ownership rules remain the central issue

The principal obstacle has been South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework and telecommunications ownership requirements.

Foreign-owned companies seeking certain communications licences have traditionally faced requirements for at least 30% local equity ownership by historically disadvantaged South Africans. SpaceX has resisted transferring such an equity stake in its South African operation.

The dispute has been particularly sensitive because of Elon Musk’s longstanding criticism of South Africa’s empowerment policies and other government legislation. Musk has argued that the ownership requirements discriminate against certain groups, while the South African government has defended the policies as part of its broader effort to address the economic inequalities created by apartheid.

The Starlink dispute consequently became entangled with wider political tensions between Pretoria and Washington, particularly following Musk’s increasingly prominent relationship with US President Donald Trump and the Trump administration’s criticism of South African policy.

That political dimension complicated what would otherwise have been a conventional regulatory and market-access dispute.

Regulatory framework begins to change

A potentially important opening emerged in December 2025 when Communications Minister Solly Malatsi introduced a policy framework allowing foreign-owned telecommunications companies to pursue equity-equivalent investment programmes to satisfy empowerment objectives.

Under such arrangements, companies can potentially meet their empowerment obligations through investments in areas such as digital infrastructure, skills development and other qualifying economic programmes rather than transferring the conventional 30% equity stake.

For Starlink, the change potentially removes one of the most significant barriers to market entry.

The company is nevertheless seeking clarity on how the revised framework would apply to its particular business model. Satellite operators differ materially from conventional terrestrial telecommunications companies because their infrastructure is distributed across satellites, ground gateways and user terminals rather than being built primarily around locally owned physical networks.

Starlink seeks broader operating concessions

Starlink’s engagement with ICASA extends beyond ownership.

The company is seeking regulatory clarity around blanket licensing arrangements for fleets of terminals, gateway licensing costs, access to additional Ku-band spectrum for maritime and aviation applications and longer licence durations, reportedly seeking terms of at least 10 years.

These issues will be important to Starlink’s commercial model because the economics of satellite broadband depend heavily on the ability to deploy large numbers of terminals while maintaining predictable spectrum and licensing arrangements.

For South Africa, the potential arrival of Starlink also presents a competitive question. Satellite broadband could expand connectivity in underserved areas where conventional fixed-line infrastructure is commercially difficult to deploy, while simultaneously increasing competitive pressure on established telecommunications operators.

The potential benefits therefore extend beyond Starlink itself. Greater satellite connectivity could provide businesses, schools, households and remote communities with an additional broadband option, particularly in areas where terrestrial infrastructure remains limited.

From political confrontation to commercial negotiation

The significance of the latest ICASA engagement lies in the change in tone.

For several years, Starlink’s South African ambitions were dominated by arguments over ownership policy and Musk’s public criticism of the country’s regulatory and political environment. The latest discussions suggest the dispute is increasingly being treated as a regulatory problem capable of being negotiated rather than an outright political impasse.

That does not mean market entry is guaranteed. Starlink still needs to secure the necessary licences and satisfy South Africa’s regulatory requirements.

But the direction of travel has changed.

After years of operating across much of Africa while remaining absent from South Africa, SpaceX is now actively negotiating the regulatory architecture under which Starlink could operate. If those discussions produce an acceptable licensing framework, the company could finally gain access to one of the continent’s largest and most commercially important broadband markets.

For South Africa, the issue is ultimately larger than whether Starlink receives a licence. It is a test of whether the country’s empowerment objectives can be reconciled with attracting global technology companies whose ownership structures and business models do not fit neatly into traditional telecommunications frameworks.

The post Starlink moves closer to South Africa after years of regulatory deadlock appeared first on The Zimbabwe Mail.

Zvimba — The demolition campaign that has swept through Harare’s suburbs has reached the countryside, with rural homes in Murombedzi in Zvimba district, being pulled down in scenes that have left families without shelter and raised fresh questions about the sale of communal land. A 3-and-half minute video circulating online shows demolition machinery moving through […]

The post SABHUKU DEALS END IN TEARS: Council demolishes rural houses in Murombedzi (WATCH VIDEOS) first appeared on My Zimbabwe News.

A motorist lost his vehicle in Harare after leaving the keys in the ignition and failing to lock the doors while having a nice time in a nightclub, police have said. Midmore Karinga, from Chinhoyi, had parked his red Isuzu 2-tonne truck outside a nightclub along Harare Street before going inside. When he returned about […]

The post How Mr Karinga lost his car to thieves while having a nice time in nightclub first appeared on My Zimbabwe News.

Four men from Gwanda, Zhombe, Bulawayo and Mberengwa have been handed lengthy prison sentences in separate rape cases involving children and an adult woman, with a combined total of 59 years imposed by the courts. The cases, heard in different parts of Zimbabwe, include the conviction of a 73-year-old grandfather who repeatedly abused his 13-year-old […]

The post Many years in prison for 4 men from Gwanda, Zhombe, Bulawayo and Mberengwa after enjoying illegal lula lula first appeared on My Zimbabwe News.

HARARE — The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is pressing commercial banks to pass recent monetary policy easing through to borrowers, arguing that persistently expensive credit is constraining investment and limiting the flow of finance into productive sectors of the economy.

The central bank has progressively reduced its policy rate from 35% to 25%, while the interest rate on funding under the Targeted Finance Facility (TFF) has been cut from 20% to 15%. The policy shift is intended to lower the cost of finance for businesses, particularly those operating in agriculture, manufacturing, mining and other sectors capable of expanding production and employment.

The issue now is transmission. Lower central-bank rates have little practical effect on the wider economy if commercial banks continue charging businesses lending rates that remain prohibitively high.

For companies, the cost of credit directly influences decisions on working capital, inventory, equipment purchases, factory expansion and new production capacity. Where borrowing costs exceed the expected return from an investment, otherwise viable projects are likely to be postponed or abandoned.

Monetary easing must reach the real economy

The RBZ’s intervention reflects a broader economic principle: monetary policy becomes effective only when changes in the central bank’s policy stance are transmitted through the financial system into household and corporate borrowing.

A lower policy rate should, in theory, reduce banks’ marginal cost of funds and eventually translate into cheaper credit. That process can stimulate private-sector investment, increase demand for capital goods and improve productive capacity.

But the transmission mechanism is neither automatic nor immediate.

Banks must still price loans for credit risk, liquidity, operating costs, capital requirements and expected inflation. In Zimbabwe’s case, businesses also operate against a background of exchange-rate uncertainty and uneven cash flows, which can cause lenders to maintain substantial risk premiums even when the policy rate falls.

The RBZ’s challenge is therefore to ensure that monetary easing does not remain confined to the banking system’s balance sheet but reaches businesses capable of converting credit into economic output.

Productive sectors at the centre of the strategy

Agriculture, manufacturing and mining are particularly important because additional financing in these sectors can generate output rather than merely increase consumption.

A manufacturer able to obtain affordable working capital can purchase raw materials, increase production and utilise previously idle capacity. An agricultural producer can finance inputs, irrigation and equipment. A mining company can fund exploration, processing capacity or productivity-enhancing machinery.

The economic multiplier from such lending can be considerably larger than that associated with credit used primarily for short-term consumption.

This is why the cost of borrowing matters beyond individual businesses. If productive companies cannot access reasonably priced finance, Zimbabwe risks constraining investment precisely when it needs higher domestic production and greater industrial capacity.

The cost of waiting

High interest rates also create an opportunity cost for businesses.

A company considering a new factory may calculate that a project can generate a 15% annual return. If the cost of debt is materially above that level, borrowing becomes economically unattractive even though the underlying project is productive.

The same applies to smaller businesses. Expensive overdrafts and working-capital facilities can absorb margins that would otherwise have been reinvested into stock, machinery, employment or expansion.

Lower lending rates can consequently alter corporate behaviour by making projects that were previously marginal financially viable.

For banks, however, the response must be balanced against credit risk. An aggressive reduction in lending rates without adequate underwriting could simply transfer risk from borrowers to bank balance sheets. The objective should therefore be cheaper productive credit, not indiscriminate credit expansion.

A test for Zimbabwe’s banking sector

The RBZ’s latest position places commercial banks at the centre of the next phase of economic recovery.

The question is no longer simply whether monetary policy has become less restrictive. It is whether the banking sector will transmit that easing sufficiently to alter investment decisions in the real economy.

If lending rates fall, viable businesses should have greater capacity to finance inventories, modernise equipment, expand production and undertake new capital projects. Increased investment should, in turn, support employment, domestic supply and economic growth.

For Zimbabwe, the ultimate measure of monetary easing will therefore not be the movement of the policy rate from 35% to 25%.

It will be whether a manufacturer can borrow more cheaply, an agricultural producer can finance the next season, a mining company can expand capacity and a growing business can obtain working capital without the cost of finance making the underlying investment uneconomic.

That is the transmission mechanism the RBZ is now trying to unlock.

The post Zimbabwe Central Bank Urges Banks to Cut Lending Rates appeared first on The Zimbabwe Mail.