For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Lumkile Nkofe.

Making headlines: Icasa probes illegal use of Starlink service in South Africa; CDE warns Transformation Fund is flawed, calls for its scrapping; And, South Africa GDP growth outlook gets biggest cut since early 2023

Icasa probes illegal use of Starlink service in South Africa

A South African regulator has started a probe into allegations that Elon Musk’s Starlink internet-satellite service was operating in the country illegally.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has formally engaged with SpaceX and is awaiting a response, it said in a statement today.

Icasa Chairperson Mothibi Ramusi said should the investigation find any breach with regulatory and legislative frameworks, the authority will explore the applicable enforcement actions within its disposal, that may include “lodging a formal complaint with the International Telecommunication Union.

Starlink — which has more than 5-million users globally — delivers broadband internet beamed down from a network of roughly 7 500 satellites that SpaceX started deploying in 2019. South Africa is among several nations on the continent that haven’t licensed the service.

Pretoria-born Musk has sought approval to operate Starlink in the country, but has objected to legislation that seeks to boost Black participation in the economy, accusing the government of having “openly racist ownership laws.”

CDE warns Transformation Fund is flawed, calls for its scrapping

The Centre for Development and Enterprise today called for the proposed R100-billion Transformation Fund to be scrapped, saying it is “riddled with gaps, flawed assumptions, and implausible funding mechanisms”.

Ahead of today’s deadline on submissions to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition on government’s proposed R100-billion Transformation Fund, the CDE warns in its submissions that the fund is “a lose-lose proposition” that will fail to achieve its objectives.

Government believes the fund will help improve the effectiveness of broad-based black economic empowerment spending as it seeks to aggregate the funding that JSE-listed groups, State-owned enterprises and unlisted private companies spend collectively on enterprise and supplier development, as well as some of the funding multinationals direct towards equity equivalent schemes to secure their BBBEE compliance, without selling shares in their companies.

CDE executive director Ann Bernstein believes that the implementation of the fund will undermine existing efforts to promote economic inclusion and actually harm black-owned firms involved in current supplier development value chains.

She argues that the fund’s proposition is based on an inaccurate assessment of what transformation requires, and “an equally misguided belief in the State’s capacity to deliver it”.

And, South Africa GDP growth outlook gets biggest cut since early 2023

Economists have cut their consensus forecast for South African economic growth this year by 0.3 percentage points in May, in the biggest single monthly downgrade since early 2023, a Reuters poll showed, as they factor in the impact of US tariffs.

The last time growth forecasts got a similar trim was in early 2023 due to power shortages.

A median forecast of 26 economists surveyed May 22-27 suggested growth would be 1.2% this year. Last month, the forecast was reduced to 1.5% from 1.7%. For next year, it was shaved by 0.2 percentage points compared with last month's poll to 1.6%.

Independent economist Elize Kruger said she sliced 0.5 percentage point off her earlier forecast for GDP growth of 1.5%.

She said the bigger negative impact on South Africa will likely emerge from the indirect effect of the trade war on the global economy at large, and specifically on South Africa's major trading partners.

US President Donald Trump proposed a 31% tariff on South Africa in early April, which, as with other countries, was put on pause for 90 days.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

Don’t forget to follow us on the X platform, at the handle @PolityZA