7 ms·

This is misleading, Starlink does not need to provide "30% to the state", they only have to give 30% ownership to a local company with historically disenfranchi

This is misleading, Starlink does not need to provide "30% to the state", they only have to give 30% ownership to a local company with historically disenfranchised owners providing real economic value to South Africa. This can be a private company.

IncreasePosts 3mo ago
Does ownership ever get assigned to people who aren't political cronies of the current government?
- dreambuffer 3mo ago
  Yes, all the time, because it is a private arrangement between the foreign company and the local company. Private companies are in no meaningful sense "cronies" of the government, even if they were accredited by the formal regulating body. You cannot point to a single major case of B-BEEE favouritism, it is a legal framework that is almost always impartial.
  - IncreasePosts 3mo ago
    Hitachi famously got caught doing exactly this: using b-bbee as a front to funnel bribe money to the ruling party.
    - dreambuffer 2mo ago
      No, that had nothing to do with B-BBEE abuse.
- consensus1 3mo ago
  In South Africa I would be very surprised if that ever happened. This is a country that went from exporting electricity to daily blackouts because of corruption.
  - dreambuffer 3mo ago
    It is easy to export electricity when you only need to serve 10% of the population.
    - xienze 3mo ago
      Whose fault is it the electrical grid apparently, according to your thesis, hasn't been upgraded in the 30+ years since apartheid ended?
      - dreambuffer 2mo ago
        Although your claim is literally untrue as the grid has been upgraded, the answer is: mostly the apartheid government. They left the ANC with a grid that served only 10% of the population, which makes it very difficult to upgrade, especially in a country with rampant poverty leading to cable theft, corruption, and general lack of infrastructure.
    - consensus1 2mo ago
      Whatever percent of the population the grid serves, electricity production is lower than it was 20 years ago https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRENEL01ZAA656N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRENEL01ZAA656N

IncreasePosts 3mo ago

Does ownership ever get assigned to people who aren't political cronies of the current government?

dreambuffer 3mo ago
Yes, all the time, because it is a private arrangement between the foreign company and the local company. Private companies are in no meaningful sense "cronies" of the government, even if they were accredited by the formal regulating body. You cannot point to a single major case of B-BEEE favouritism, it is a legal framework that is almost always impartial.
- IncreasePosts 3mo ago
  Hitachi famously got caught doing exactly this: using b-bbee as a front to funnel bribe money to the ruling party.
  - dreambuffer 2mo ago
    No, that had nothing to do with B-BBEE abuse.
consensus1 3mo ago
In South Africa I would be very surprised if that ever happened. This is a country that went from exporting electricity to daily blackouts because of corruption.
- dreambuffer 3mo ago
  It is easy to export electricity when you only need to serve 10% of the population.
  - xienze 3mo ago
    Whose fault is it the electrical grid apparently, according to your thesis, hasn't been upgraded in the 30+ years since apartheid ended?
    - dreambuffer 2mo ago
      Although your claim is literally untrue as the grid has been upgraded, the answer is: mostly the apartheid government. They left the ANC with a grid that served only 10% of the population, which makes it very difficult to upgrade, especially in a country with rampant poverty leading to cable theft, corruption, and general lack of infrastructure.
  - consensus1 2mo ago
    Whatever percent of the population the grid serves, electricity production is lower than it was 20 years ago https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRENEL01ZAA656N https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRENEL01ZAA656N