BN Edge | Piet le Roux: ICASA, Starlink and the true cost of BEE

Restricting telecom service provision in South Africa. Now, tell me a bit more about ICAS. I've got a personal axe to grind, full disclosure. I tried to, well, I turned around two radio stations in South Africa. I had to do it for them, three actually, because I could never get a license. Because my skin colour, according to the government, was wrong. That appeared to me to be a terribly racist and non-commercial decision.

I thought those days were over. I thought we'd kind of moved into a new era of, you know, more common sense, 30 years after 1994 and so on. Are they still playing according to the same scorebook? Well, what ECASA is doing is more or less in line with what most government departments and regulators are trying to do. They're trying to erase code the economy. And we've seen actually an increase in that. We call it the third wave of BEE, which is where previously you mostly had to do some kind

Of ownership deal, some kind of BE really had to apply to you if you were dealing in any way with the government. What's now happening is that it is increasingly being expanded as a licensing mechanism to do any economic activity at all. Now, I know entities like sectors like mining and telecoms, and you can say fisheries, some go back 20-something years with this race skating, even a little bit more. But what we're seeing in telecoms now, Alec, as you've attested.

To you've experienced this before. We're just seeing an acceleration, we're seeing an expansion of the scope of what that applies to. And in fact, under ICASA's current interpretation, many license renewals that are coming up for local ISPs, local radio stations, local operators, I know people are mentioning Starlink, it does affect Starlink, but ICASA's position is an example of what is going on all across.

Regulators in South Africa at the moment racegating access to the economy. So, why are they doing this? Alec, you can say it's a combination of sectional interests. Of course, some people benefit a lot when, because of their skin color, their race, if they are put in a position where companies like Starlink make deals with them or they are expected to make deals, and then these people benefit and they get shares handed.

Them or on very favorable terms, they become partners to a business that they wouldn't ordinarily, for their merits of their business acumen or their capital contributions, never would have been. So, there are sectional interests at play in the sense of some people want to benefit. Then there is back to what Professor William Cumirez said: those hundred South Africans who are just fleecing the system because they can make the laws work in their favor. Is that the interpretation? Well, I think that's.