Malatsi defends ICT policy directive amid political pushback

Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi says opposition to his new policy directive on easing Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) requirements for foreign ICT investors is politically motivated.

Malatsi's directive, published last week, creates a new pathway for foreign investors in the ICT sector—such as tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink. It allows these entities to invest locally through methods other than the traditional requirement of selling a 30% equity stake to local players.

The Minister argues that critics of the directive are ignoring key factors, most notably the requirement for full alignment with the country’s existing empowerment policies.

The directive has faced significant resistance, not only from opposition parties in Parliament but also from within the Ministry itself, via Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) condemned the move, labelling it an attempt to use ministerial powers to subvert South African laws specifically to allow Starlink to operate.

The MK Party said the directive disregards the role of Parliament in policy development.

“The opposition to the policy directive is definitely political expediency, grounded in ignoring the fact that it calls for full alignment with the country’s economic empowerment framework, as expressed not only in the B-BBEE Act but also in ICT sector codes, which provide for equity-equivalence investment programmes as a pathway for investment in South Africa.”

Malatsi also says public submissions were overwhelmingly in favour of the directive, which he has asked the regulator ICASA to consider