The Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) Party has come out with guns blazing, saying the opening of the window for updated equity equivalent investment programmes is meant to allow big tech players like Elon Musk to have a backdoor entry to the South African market without complying with BEE requirements.
The party said this in a statement in response to a call by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Solly Malatsi, who has today gazetted a policy direction on the role of equity equivalent investment programmes (EEIPs) in the ICT sector as a mechanism to accelerate broadband access.
Malatsi said the policy direction seeks to provide the much-needed policy certainty to attract investment into the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, and specifically with regards to licensing for broadcasters, internet service providers, mobile networks, or fixed and mobile networks.
“Currently, the rules around who can acquire a licence to provide electronic communications services or to operate an electronic communications network, require a minimum of 30% shares to be in the hands of historically disadvantaged individuals.
“These regulations do not currently allow companies that can contribute to South Africa’s transformation goals in ways other than traditional ownership, to qualify for individual licences under the Electronic Communications Act (ECA), whether or not they are big international companies that do not usually sell shares to local partners,” Malatsi said.
However, the MK Party disagrees, it says this is a treacherous blueprint designed to dismantle state capacity, bypass transformative procurement frameworks and fast-track backdoor deals with foreign tech oligarchs – chief among them, Elon Musk’s Starlink.
“This gazette is not mere bureaucracy. It is the execution phase of a covert pact brokered by Ramaphosa, Steenhuisen and their neoliberal mentor Donald Trump, to subvert the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Charter and neutralise Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) imperatives in favour of unaccountable global capital.
“The Minister of Digital Communications and Technologies Solly Malatsi’s claim of “stakeholder consultation” is a smoke-and-mirrors tactic. The MK Party demands immediate and full public disclosure of these so-called stakeholders,” the party alleged.
