TREKKIE TOWN: SA goes boldly into space race despite technical black holes

South Africa is a country with the best intentions, but has massive blind spots in its vision. Space is no different.

There were 116 products sourced from six South African space industry companies on board the SpaceX Transporter-14 launch in July 2025. It’s astonishing, then, that just two months earlier, it seemed like the regulators that hold the local operation fate of these companies in their hands couldn’t agree on which way was up.

But we have to go back further to trace the seeds of chaos. In 2015/2016, the Cabinet instructed the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and the Department of Science, Technology & Innovation (DSTI) to draft a National Satellite Communication Strategy to end total reliance on foreign satellite providers and protect national sovereignty.

South Africa spends about R30-billion a year procuring external communication services, with direct cash outflows exceeding R1-billion annually for foreign satellite capacity. By contrast, procuring a locally owned telecommunications satellite with a 20-year lifespan is estimated to cost about R6-billion, keeping capital and job creation within the domestic economy.

During the joint parliamentary briefing on 1 April 2025 between the Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies and the Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, government officials finally outlined South Africa’s road map towards establishing a sovereign satellite capability.

In a LinkedIn post about that briefing, and in an interview with Daily Maverick earlier this year, industrial policy strategist and space compliance expert Natasha van Rooyen said it felt like an April Fool’s joke. To quote that social media synthesis, she said South Africa suffers from acute technical constraints:

“[SA’s] space sector stands at a pivotal crossroads. The recent #DCDT & #DSTI briefing to Parliament highlighted critical capability and capacity challenges that limit our progress – despite the country’s proven talent and potential. A shortage of systems engineers, constrained manufacturing capacity, and aging infrastructure continue to slow momentum just as global demand for satellite technologies accelerates.”

In that conversation with Daily Maverick, Van Rooyen stressed that South Africa’s legislative and standards framework had failed to keep pace with rapid technological advancements.