From M-Net to Musk: MultiChoice legend bringing Starlink to Southern Africa

Nolo Letele's move from broadcasting royalty to telecoms trailblazer is a fitting sequel to a career built on cross-border expansion. The man Koos Bekker tasked with growing MultiChoice across Africa in the 1990s is now chairing T-Connect Lesotho, the ISP driving Starlink's rollout across Southern Africa. It's a neat symmetry: decades ago Letele extended pay-TV into markets terrestrial broadcasters couldn't reach; today he's doing the same for satellite internet in places where fibre and mobile towers never will. Meanwhile in South Africa, Starlink's own launch remains stuck on ownership regulations — even as Letele's regional rollout races ahead..By Hanno Labuschagne.The respected businessman credited with pioneering MultiChoice’s expansion beyond South Africa is the chairman of an Internet service provider (ISP) reselling Starlink across Southern Africa.Nolo Letele’s career at MultiChoice spanned more than three decades and included serving as its South Africa and Group CEO.His significant contributions to its growth culminated in a documentary about his life titled Yes To Impossible: The Nolo Letele Story, which first aired on M-Net in 2024.Letele was born in 1949 to a South African father and a Mosotho mother. He spent most of his childhood years in his mother’s home country.After completing his schooling, he moved to England, initially with the desire to become a nuclear physicist. He ended up studying electronic engineering at the University of Southampton.After completing his studies, he returned to South Africa in 1974 to find a job, but there was very little available on the market for black engineering graduates at the time.He took up a position at the small Lesotho National Broadcasting Service radio station. He also played a pivotal role in the establishment of the country’s first TV station in the 1980s.M-Net co-founder Koos Bekker asked Letele to join the pay-TV company in 1990 and help build its presence outside of South Africa.In 1995, he was appointed MultChoice West African regional manager, working out of Ghana. He returned to South Africa a few years later and was appointed MultiChoice South Africa CEO in 1999.Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to MultiChoice Group CEO, a position he held until stepping down in 2010.He continued to play a part in the broadcaster’s operational strategy as MultiChoice South Africa Holdings executive chairman, a role he held for 11 years.After MultiChoice was spun out of Naspers, Letele became a non-executive director of MultiChoice Group.Letele also served as a non-executive director of the Naspers board from December 2018 to March 2025.From broadcasting to telecoms.Letele received several awards for his work in African broadcasting, including a Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize for Media Development in Africa.Recognising his well-established links with African business networks, telecoms provider T-Connect Lesotho appointed Letele as its chairperson in 2025.The move came in the lead-up to Starlink securing its licence to operate in the sparsely populated mountainous kingdom, which is enveloped by South Africa.T-Connect said Starlink’s launch in Lesotho would provide a major economic boost, supporting around 10,000 direct and 50,000 indirect jobs.At an event celebrating the launch of the service in June 2025, Letele dismissed concerns that Starlink threatened traditional terrestrial telecoms operators.“Starlink complements the telcos, it’s not there to come and take away people’s jobs,” Letele said. “It’s intended to provide access to sites telcos would never be able to provide for except very expensively.”Letele listed several examples where Starlink had provided critical connectivity services in rural areas or emergencies in its early days in Southern Africa.Among the first installations in Lesotho were at far-flung schools in areas like Thaba Tseka. The service also supported emergency communications during flooding in 2025 in Botswana..MultiChoice’s Showmax bet collapses amid soaring losses and stalled growth.With funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa, T-Connect is rolling out Starlink to rural communities across 10 countries in the region.Starlink has also offered to provide free connectivity to 5,000 schools in South Africa, valued at R500 million, as part of a proposed equity-equivalent investment to secure approval to launch in the country.That planned rollout has been hampered by South Africa’s telecommunications regulations, which require that licensees be 30% owned by historically disadvantaged people.Recent photos of Nolo Letele and T-Connect Starlink rollouts.This article was first published by MyBroadband and is republished with permission..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. 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From M-Net to Musk: MultiChoice legend bringing Starlink to Southern Africa

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