Solly Malatsi gets grilled in parliament over 'Starlink gazette', defends ICT policy directive

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi defends ICT policy, denies special treatment for Starlink, and stresses the need to align sector regulations with transformation laws through equity equivalent investment options.
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, has defended his department's recently gazetted policy directive aimed at recognising Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) in the ICT sector, insisting that it is rooted in legal compliance and transformation, not special treatment for any company.
This comes after Committee Chairperson Khusela Diko stated that the gazetted policy directions appear to violate the Electronic Communications Act and seem to favour the low Earth orbit satellite provider, SpaceX.
Speaking before Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications, Malatsi clarified that the directive is part of a broader and longstanding effort to align the ICT sector's licensing regulations with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework.
'We are not attempting to open a special dispensation for Starlink or any other company or an individual,' Malatsi said.
'We are saying that the regulations in our sector must consistently make provision for the two choices that exist in any other sector, the 30% local ownership or the pathway of equity equivalence.'

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