The Zimbabwean government on Saturday approved the licensing of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, two weeks after arresting a politician’s son for illegally possessing a Starlink terminal, TechPoint Africa reported.
Neville Mutsvangwa, whose father is the spokesman for Zimbabwe’s ruling party and his mother a minister of women’s affairs and community development, was additionally arrested for violating the country’s Postal and Telecommunications Act, the report said, without stating whether the approval of Starlink now is related to that incident.
The Starlink had been illegal in Zimbabwe since January 2024, when the telecommunications authority announced plans to arrest individuals and businesses found distributing and advertising the device. Despite the ban, people in Zimbabwe continued to use Starlink through its roaming services.
According to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who announced the licence approval on X, Starlink’s entry into the digital telecommunications space in Zimbabwe is expected to “provide advanced internet and related digital processing services in Zimbabwe through its sole and exclusive local partner, IMC Communications (Pvt) Ltd.”
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The approval in Zimbabwe makes it the eighth African country to do so. Ghana’s National Communications Authority last month announced it had approved an application to have Starlink operate in the country, but a licence hasn’t been granted yet.
