The article literally says South Africa bans Starlink due to the race of the owner. As his race does not meet South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations:

Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk's SpaceX, has been unable to enter the South African market due to the country's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations. These laws require that companies providing communication services be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups to receive an operating license.

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

So he can still own it as a white man so long as he allows 30% to be owned by someone black, Cape Malay, Indian, San, KhoiKhoi or 'coloured', or indeed many people fitting any of those.

Not because he "isn't black".

Lots of countries have rules about local ownership; eg in Thailand businesses and properties have to be 51% owned by a Thai person. Of course the difference here is that for centuries the rules were increasingly enforced to treat certain races as foreigners, to the point of quite literally trying to declare parts of itself independent ie foreign. This creates a weird scenario after the fall of apartheid that is definitely uncomfortable to read but how do you undo centuries of this with carrot instead of stick when it's people like Musk and Peter Thiel?