Starlink has been trying to get a license to operate in Lesotho for a while now, but has been hampered by local ownership laws which require some portion of the local venture to be owned by citizens of Lesotho. Other telecoms providers like Vodafone operate in Lesotho in compliance with these laws.
In the aftermath of tariffs by President Trump, the Lesotho government is reportedly attempting to bypass these laws and get Starlink its license. Lawyers and civil society in Lesotho are pushing back.
Elon Musk is definitely aware of all this drama, because he has complained about Starlink's inability to get a license in South Africa. In RSA, the local ownership laws include provisions for ownership by groups disadvantaged by Apartheid (Black, Indian and Coloured). Lesotho's situation is just local ownership. Still, Elon is obviously keen to get into the regional market.
Given that Trump has, by his own admission, never even heard of Lesotho, there is no reason to believe that he is targeting Lesotho. But from the Basotho perspective, the last month of US engagement has been extraordinarily punitive, from USAID cuts to tariffs to Trump's casual insult of Lesotho at his Congressional address. Lesotho has been punished more than almost any other country other than Canada, Mexico and China. Unlike those countries, it is tiny and poor.
Clearly, the government is hoping that by acquiescing to Elon Musk, they can win favour with the Trump administration. Whether it is direct and intentional or indirect and coincidental, what has happened over the last month or two is that the Trump administration has bullied a tiny, poor country into trying to bypass its own laws and sell out a sensitive industry to one of the administration's oligarchs. This might seem small by the standards of 2025, but this is an insane level of corruption and abuse of power by the standards of normal times.
Posted by Top_Lime1820