The oral hearings, which have been called by communications regulator Icasa, kicked off in Pretoria on Wednesday, with SpaceX scheduled to make a presentation in the morning. But representatives of the Elon Musk-controlled SpaceX did not pitch up to present at its allocated timeslot.
According to an Icasa spokeswoman, SpaceX notified Icasa on Wednesday evening that it would no longer participate in the oral presentations. The company had already made a written submission, which has not been withdrawn. It's not clear why SpaceX decided to withdraw from the hearings - the company couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The withdrawal by SpaceX follows a post by Musk on his social media platform X that asked President Cyril Ramaphosa why the country has what he called "openly racist ownership laws" .
The post has stirred division in South Africa over black economic empowerment laws and the Expropriation Act, which Ramaphosa controversially signed into law last month.
Marco Rubio, the newly appointed US secretary of state, on Thursday announced he was withdrawing from the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, citing the countrys land reforms and its allegedly anti-American stance.