HOW MUSK ORDERED STARLINK TO 'MISDIRECT' DRONE ATTACK

Instructed engineers to turn off service in the area

- SIFISO MAHLANGU

A STORM is brewing around President Cyril Ramaphosa after his controversial trip to the United States last week - a visit that, according to critics, was less about diplomacy and more about easing regulation so that billionaires Elon Musk and Johan Rupert fast track lucrative Starlink deal.

Musk has been accused of ordering his Starlink satellite communications network to be turned off near the Crimean coast last year to “misdirect” a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian warships, according to a biography.

The biography alleges that Musk ordered Starlink engineers to turn off service in the area of the attack because of his concern that Vladimir Putin would respond with nuclear weapons to a Ukrainian attack on the now Russian-occupied Crimea.

Ramaphosa’s visit to the Oval Office, where he met with US President Donald Trump, was described publicly as a mission to strengthen ties and “reset” bilateral relations between the two nations, but behind closed doors, sources say the conversation quickly turned to personal business.