Maimane demands clarity from Ramaphosa on Starlink's economic impact

IOL News

6 days ago

Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane says President Cyril Ramaphosa avoided the substance of the question entirely and offered a general commentary on whether the exemption or relaxation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment regulations, which would allow Starlink to operate in South Africa, would apply equally to South African-owned companies.
Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers
Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane wants National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza to instruct President Cyril Ramaphosa to submit a written reply to the question he passed about Starlink and relaxation of black economic empowerment in ICT sector codes.
This comes after Ramaphosa skirted around Maimane's question when he was responding during a question and answer session on Tuesday.
Maimane asked whether the exemption or relaxation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment regulations, which would allow Starlink to operate in South Africa, would apply equally to South African-owned companies.
When Maimane raised his concern that Ramaphosa did not answer the substance of his question, Deputy Speaker Annelie Lotriet stated that it was his prerogative to answer as he saw fit.
'You can write to the president if you have further clarity,' Lotriet said.
EFF leader Julius Malema told Lotriet that she could not say the president has a right and a prerogative to answer the way he liked.
'You can't answer for the president. The president must decide whether he has answered or he thinks he can do much better,' he said.
However, Malema and Lotriet got into an argument over the exact parliamentary rule on the matter of prerogative of the president and the response to the satisfaction of a member.
This resulted in Malema's removal from the virtual platform.
On Wednesday, Maimane said Ramaphosa avoided the substance of the question entirely, and instead offered a general commentary on redress that failed to address the core issue of equal treatment and economic fairness for South African businesses.
'We are of the view this constitutes a direct contravention of the Executive's constitutional responsibility to account to Parliament.'
Maimane also said if an MP can be ruled out of order for asking questions that stray from the original topic, then the president, too, must be held to the same standard.
'A response must relate to the question posed. Otherwise, accountability is reduced to a performance, and not a meaningful democratic exercise.'
He said the request to Didiza was that she should instruct Ramaphosa to submit a written reply to his question within two days.
Maimane also said his request was aimed to 'uphold the principle of executive accountability and ensure that the president does not set a dangerous precedent of evasive non-answers in future sittings'.
He added that South Africans deserved clarity on whether government policy was being applied fairly and consistently, or whether multinational corporations are being favoured over local businesses.
Meanwhile, when asked at the symposium in Cape Town on Tuesday, Ramaphosa said the issue of Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX owned by billionaire Elon Musk, never even came up in the discussions with US President Donald Trump last week despite being there as part of the US delegation.
He said the process of having low-orbit satellites providing Wi-Fi and internet connectivity is known in South Africa.
'We have been through that, and there are quite a number of other companies, Chinese companies, European companies, Russian companies, and many others, and local companies who are interested in getting into that space.
'People tend to focus on one company only, and yet we've got a plethora of companies that would want to get into this space. So the environment to enhance or enable investment to happen in that space is precisely what needs to be properly crafted, properly enacted to enable that to happen.'
Ramaphosa said Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi, who has proposed policy directives on relaxing the black economic empowerment in the ICT sector, has unleashed a process that was going to elicit a lot of comment from the public, from various key stakeholders, including current role-players in the sector.
'That in itself is going to exhibit the true democratic process in our country, that when something new, something that is topical or even desirable, has to be flighted or implemented or initiated, it's got to be supported by a lot of discussion, by role-players, even by ordinary people.'
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