SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called a senior South African government official “a fucking racist” and an “asshole” in the latest escalation of his long-running public dispute with Pretoria over the licensing of his Starlink satellite broadband service.
The exchange, which played out on X on Sunday, began when Clayson Monyela, head of public diplomacy at the department of international relations & cooperation, tagged Musk in a post pointing out that more than 600 American companies operate in South Africa in compliance with local laws.
“@elonmusk watching the more than 600 USA companies investing more in [South Africa], complying with #SouthAfrican laws & thriving. Zero drama!!” Monyela posted.
Musk’s reply, posted within hours, was vulgar and direct: “Stop being such a fucking racist, you asshole.”
The outburst marks a further deterioration in Musk’s already strained relationship with the South African government, which he has repeatedly accused of racial discrimination over the country’s black economic empowerment framework. Under South African licensing rules, prospective telecommunications licensees, like Starlink, must cede 30% of their equity to historically disadvantaged groups – a condition SpaceX has said it doesn’t do anywhere in the world.
In March 2025, Musk claimed on X that Starlink was not allowed to operate in South Africa “because I’m not black”, a statement Monyela publicly rebutted at the time.
Broadside
The latest broadside comes against the backdrop of a slow-moving but politically explosive policy process that could provide a workaround for Starlink and other multinationals in the telecoms space that are unwilling or unable to dilute equity locally.
In December 2025, communications minister Solly Malatsi gazetted a final policy directive instructing the regulator, Icasa, to recognise equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) as an alternative to the 30% local ownership rule.
Read: ICT sector BEE code under the microscope as Starlink circles
Under the EEIP framework, a multinational could retain full ownership of its South African operation while making qualifying investments in local infrastructure, skills development or enterprise support equivalent to either 30% of the value of its local operation or 4% of annual local revenue.
Starlink has indicated it would commit close to R2-billion under such a framework, including R500-million to connect 5 000 rural schools to high-speed internet.
Stop being such a fucking racist, you asshole
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 12, 2026
The directive has been bitterly contested. The portfolio committee on communications & digital technologies, chaired by the ANC’s Khusela Diko, has accused Malatsi of overreach and called for the directive to be withdrawn. The EFF and MK Party have argued that EEIPs would hollow out transformation in the ICT sector. The presidency, however, has publicly backed Malatsi’s reforms.
Separately, the B-BBEE ICT Sector Council announced last week that a full review of the 2016 ICT sector code is under way, with public comments due by 20 May. That review could help determine whether EEIPs become a permanent feature of the ICT sector.
Delays
Industry analysts have suggested that even if the policy direction survives political and legal challenge, the regulatory process could take 18-24 months to complete, putting a realistic Starlink launch in South Africa no earlier than late 2027.
Starlink is operational in 24 African countries, including all of South Africa’s neighbours except Namibia, which rejected the company’s licence applications in March. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
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