By Enyichukwu Enemanna
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa has met with tech billionaire and founder of X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk, in New York, behind closed doors at the ongoing 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79).
National broadcaster SABC, quoted the President to have described the meeting with Musk, the world’s richest man, as “positive”.
Ramaphosa is leading a South African delegation to a High-Level Week in New York, from 21-24 September 2024.
Ramaphosa has also engaged business leaders as part of a drive to attract foreign direct investment into South Africa.
He also addressed the SA-US Interactive Business Forum at the New York Stock Exchange, and delivered a keynote address during a roundtable discussion hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding.
Musk a South African tech billionaire is known for his key roles in the space company SpaceX and the electric vehicle company Tesla. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp, the company that operates the social media platform X.
“We had a good meeting,” said Ramaphosa, shaking hands with Musk in the SABC clip. “Absolutely,” the tech billionaires responded.
The meeting with Musk comes as South Africa eagerly awaits the launch of Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service in the country.
With Starlink already launching in SA’s Southern African peers, there’s been a lot of concerns on why the satellite-based internet service has yet to be launched in the tech billionaire’s country of birth.
Amid the uncertainty, earlier this month, Ramaphosa reportedly said there was progress in talks with Musk.
“I have had discussions with him and have said, ‘Elon, you [have] become so successful and you’re investing in a variety of countries, I want you to come home and invest here’,” BusinessDay quoted the President as saying.
Musk recently posted on X that Starlink is “waiting for regulatory approval” in South Africa.
