A proposed regulatory change would allow Elon Musk’s satellite company and others like it to get a license without having to sell shares to Black South Africans.
The South African government moved one step closer to approving the use of Starlink in the country.
Officials on Friday began a policy review process that could pave the way for Elon Musk to bring his satellite internet service into South Africa for the first time without having to sell shares to Black South Africans.
South African law requires foreign companies to provide partial ownership to historically disadvantaged groups, which were prohibited from participating in many business opportunities during apartheid.
The law is meant to redress the economic inequality that persists three decades after that brutal system of racial segregation came to an end. Mr. Musk, who was born in South Africa, has called the laws racist.
“Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black,” he posted on X in March.
The announcement on Friday comes just two days after Mr. Musk attended a tense Oval Office meeting in which President Trump confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims of mass killings of white farmers.
White House officials have said that American companies should be exempted from the ownership requirement. Paving the way for Starlink approval and highlighting other business opportunities for Mr. Musk was seen as a strategy Mr. Ramaphosa might use in the White House to help reach a new trade deal and repair his country’s icy relations with the United States.