How Musk, Ramaphosa, and Jonas shape the future of connectivity

IT must be said with a lot of painful helplessness that the tale of SpaceX’s Starlink and its connection to South Africa is a story that could not be told with the confidence of full fact. It has many layers of obfuscation that started long before Elon Musk became a Special Government Employee of DOGE.

The many theatrical layers lined in its ineligible pages run from December of 2023 to the 21st of May of this year, on that pitiful night of melodrama in the Oval Office.

To be sure, the entire evening was dedicated to justifying why South Africa should have a CIA-controlled satellite system in South Africa. The places where it is alleged it is needed most, are the two places that could not justify a profitably sustainable economic model for the satellite behemoth.

All of them in that room, well curated to proselytise the same fact, one speaker after another, confirmed that the Starlink satellite network is required for the rural areas and the police stations. You can’t make this stuff up.

The justification to go to the US hurriedly, it would seem, just before Musk’s special status in the White House expired, was said to be the urgency to deny the accusations of genocide against farmers, or white farmers or even South African whites, terms used somewhat interchangeably. And where the opportunity permitted, fight particularly hard to preserve the privileges inherent in the Africa Growth Opportunity Act, popularly known as AGOA.

The entire charade was disheartening. President Trump, the main genocide accuser, was not even interested in the genocide charges he ought to be fervent about. He just took stock pictures from the internet depicting Ebola victims from the Congo and called them butchered white farmers, not least for the fact that the corpses in question were encased in white sheaths.

His evidence in chief was a clip of the President of EFF Julius Malema addressing a rally and chanting some song. So much for a genocide proof positive. But then again, he had no interest in proving anything. He was on a tight script.

And so the true intent of the visit unfurled in painfully scripted episodes. The denouement of the plot did not reveal from the brilliance of its authorship but from the Hobbesian valour of Donald j. Trump. It was short, nasty and brutish.

It segued from the delegation’s defence of there being too much violence in South Africa to the urgent need for Starlink to provide effective policing on behalf of a failed defence and security cluster, its policies and their entire criminal intelligence infrastructure.

Musk, standing in the audience, observed the moment with glee, savouring his victory just a mere seven days shy of the date of his leaving office.

MTN is an amazing organisation that had humble beginnings from highly entrepreneurial individuals who, with the help of the State, established M-Cell, MTN’s predecessor. They have had an impressive growth that has made them telecommunications giants of the continent in the main.

The company boasts of powerful shareholders, including Shanduka Group, a company owned by President Cyril Ramaphosa and currently under the charge of a blind trust.

The blind Trustee reposed with the privilege is Phuthuma Nhleko, who became the CEO of MTN in 2002. The current chairman of MTN is Mncebisi Jonas.

Sometime in 2023, Tech Central, a publication that specialises in technology news, was emblazoned with the headline “MTN partners with Starlink, AST for African connectivity”. The byline of the article is owed to an observer of these deeply technical issues far from the grasp of ordinary citizens.

On that 19th of December, 2023, the author, Nkosinathi Ndlovu, sought to convey the novelty of this development, enthused that the telecommunications group has partnered with low-earth orbit satellite service providers, including Starlink in exploring satellite technology for direct-to-cellular connectivity and backhaul connectivity.

Ndlovu was quoting from a mandated authority, one Mezan Mroue, MTN Group Chief Technology and Information Officer.

The verbatim excerpt radiated the excitement of a partnership breakthrough. These are that, “concurrently, there are ongoing engagements with SpaceX’s Starlink with enterprise-grade trials underway in Rwanda and Nigeria”.

Between the declaration of an Ambassador as persona non grata and the appointment of a special envoy, MTN may have already been sitting on political capital. Who knew! And, Uncle Johan Rupert was ostensibly brought along for his avuncular accompaniment, or was he?

Whether or not Starlink will be licensed under the conditions suitable to Trump and Musk is a moot point. There are too many flagrant injurious steps that would offend the spirit of the Constitution and other provisions of the laws of general application.

These infractions would not derive from licensing Starlink to be exact. But they would flow from the insensitivity of licensing Starlink to the exclusion of everyone else. Or what would be the point of so much dramatic genocidal allegations if Musk would be made to compete and still lose to someone else?

So the laws, or the procedures attending to them, must be perverted in order to achieve this White House-curated objective. The Honourable Minister, Malatsi, has his job cut out for him. All he has to do is to promote Starlink. That takes a lot of imagination.

Like a magician, he has to bend the arch of reality, spew incantations of abracadabra and then pull the biggest state capture heist that would dwarf the infamy of the Guptas by fathoms.

The apparatus of state in its variegated formations must be deployed to prevent two possible outcomes.

First, they would be at work to ensure that none of the BRICS member countries, who have the largest number of satellites in low Earth orbit and provide services at the cheapest costs, must participate in this bidding round. For, if they win, ICASA would have to cancel the round, disqualify all of them and pronounce Starlink the default winner.

Second, the state must ensure that the intellectual, spiritual and factual independence of the judiciary is prevented from sanctioning the state for its egregious undertaking. This may involve too many people, an onerous task indeed.

Trump’s agreeing to attend the G-20 Summit in the City of Gold is timed to witness the crowning of Starlink’s moment of glory. That is, if he obliges South Africa’s invitation and graces with his presence, the rainbow nation’s beautiful but troubled shores.

As Lesotho and Botswana have already accepted and signed for the Starlink satellite services, licensing by South Africa will neatly complete the CIA dominance of information ownership and data manipulation in the Southern African region.

At that point, the sovereignty of the Republic of a free people would not matter. But that’s besides the point. At least the rural areas and police stations would have internet, we are told.

Under that stranglehold, South Africa cannot afford to be querulous. After all, Thebephatswa Air Base in Botswana, is only 340 kilometres away.

* Ambassador Bheki Gila is a Barrister-at-Law.

** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL.