"Like every abused woman, I was embarrassed, and I knew I had made a mistake, you know? Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. Musk had earlier slammed Reich for misrepresenting his background in the post, which argued that "self-made billionaires are a myth" and named the SpaceX founder and other prominent business. Inside the fabulous Dior couture world of 'Mrs. Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zip2. ", His post ended with this: "Finally, it is necessary to acknowledge the wrong and oppressive nature of apartheid and we do need to recognise the pain and suffering it caused for many South Africans, but I do not feel it is fair to associate any of that with what Elon has achieved through hard work since he left South African shores as a teenager of 17.". Click Here to Get Smart on Protecting Your Family and Loves Ones, No Matter What Happens. In an interview with Business Insider South Africa, Musk's father Errol Musk said he negotiated his way into having partial ownership of an Emerald mine in Zambia along with other assets. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. Its unclear how old Elon was at the time and whether he was even present is in dispute. 2021, https://www.theonion.com/the-richest-person-in-every-state-and-how-they-made-the-1846312073. I arrived by myself in Canada in 89 with ~CA$2500 Paid my own way through college, ending with ~$100k student debt Started 1st company with no funding & just one computer I built Theres no evidence whatsoever of an emerald mine, 2/2My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years. "And then there'd still be all these notes sticking out and we'd sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.". ", Errol and Elon have an acrimonious relationship. [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he once owned half of an emerald mine in Zambia, which he claimed to have purchased on a whim. My own (wonderful) mother told me I am ruthless and should learn to be more humane. But I love my children and would readily do whatever for them.. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. His parents divorced. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.". "Exploring the Otherworldly Ambitions of Elon Musk." He didnt own an emerald mine, and I worked my way through college, ending up [around] $100,000 in student debt, Elon tweeted. He was bullied at school. Their half-sister.. odakyu11. And I was too scared to tell anyone [about his violence]," Maye told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. "'His Family Stole an Emerald Mine.'" I tried threats, rewards, intellectual arguments, emotional arguments, everything to try to change my father for the better, and he no way, it just got worse. The Buffalo News via San Jose Mercury News via Newspapers.com, 20 Apr. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably. Journalism strengthens democracy. By email, Clash told us he had no idea why it was no longer hosted by Forbes. The story made no further mention of the mine. This article forms part of the archives of Business Insider South Africa, which was published as a partnership between News24 and Insider Inc between 2018 and 2023. This is not true," Elon told Rolling Stone in 2017. Elon would later get his own pilot's license but no longer has time to fly. ---. Soon after Elon left for Canada, his mother, Maye, moved there too, along with Elons brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca. Elon Musk's father, Errol Musk, remains a mysterious figure, and there is still no common consensus how his work or his wealth during Elon's childhood. However, Errol also told the outlet that life in apartheid South Africa was ultimately "better" and "safer" than it is today. ", "You have no idea about how bad. Sager, Jessica. Elon Musk was highlighted as the wealthiest resident of Texas, Americas second-biggest state. The entire episode started when the satirical publication The Onion published a piece on the wealthiest person in each American state. Facebook, 27 July 2020, https://www.facebook.com/errol.musk/posts/10218340000911015. On an undisclosed date, Errol reportedly shot and killed three of up to a half-dozen armed intruders who broke into his Johannesburg home, according to Rolling Stone. An avid pilot and sailor, as well as an electrical and mechanical engineer, he made his money consulting and developing properties and retired early. Elon was a witness to this, bullets flying around, Cattrell further claimed. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. It didn't work out too well in the end," he said. We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. The headline of the story read, "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money).". [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. Instead, they focus on describing how hard he worked in his teenage years and early adulthood, how much debt he accrued by attending college and his disdain for his father. Curiously, Errol has said nothing more about the controversial emerald mine story in the years since, even in recent interviews like his discussion with Forbes last year. While the story did mention the family once lived in a popular suburb, the article said nothing of the emerald mine providing wealth to the son when he moved to Canada in 1988, or to the U.S. in 1992. This is a pretty awful lie, Elon tweeted. ", For his part, Errol told the Daily Mail that Elon "needs to grow up" and "get over himself," adding, "I'm not going to hit back. He said that they stopped in Djibouti to avoid pricey airport fees, and there happened to meet some Italian merchants who offered to buy the plane from him then and there. In 2019, Elon Musk confronted the Twitter talking point about his father's supposed emerald mine head-on, writing, "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. [1] His father was a South African veteran of World War II and his mother was British. Errol was a successful consulting engineer, and also owned an emerald mine in Zambia. "I was active in opposing the National Party and their apartheid," he said in the post." The most direct address was a tweet that said his father "didn't own an emerald mind [and] I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt.". But little else is known about Errol outside of his native South Africa, where he has made a name for himself as a high-powered engineer, property developer and political advocate who vehemently opposed apartheid. And we spent three weeks making our rent-controlled apartment livable in Toronto, Maye tweeted. We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe," Errol said, explaining that one person would hold the money down while a second would slam the safe door shut. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire. "He also claims he was getting emeralds from other sources, with only 60-70% coming from this venture." Elon also denied that Errol invested in the company. His net worth is. [11] The family lived in Pretoria,[10][12] where Maye worked as a dietician and a model. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. But that's more or less where the good fortune ended. You could tell by the way that he told the story. A common story about Musk on social media is that his father owned part of an emerald mine, providing a bedrock of wealth that buoyed Elon up to his current level of success. In the biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, author Ashlee Vance wrote that Errol invested $28,000 in Elon and Kimbal's then-fledgling company, Zip2. Errol Musk (born 1946) is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was once a co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika . Once the kids were living with me, they visited their father some weekends. Errol also added that his children were keenly aware of the country's government-sanctioned racial segregation. He told me over and over that I was stupid, ugly, boring. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Beyond that, we were unable to find any evidence that showed money generated from his father's involvement in the mine helped Elon build his wealth in North America. In the interview, the Tesla owner briefly mentioned that his father had a share in an emerald mine in Zambia. First, we have republished past statements from both Errol and Elon. Errol and Elons feud has reportedly been exacerbated by the patriarchs eyebrow-raising relationships. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane. [9], Errol Musk's claims that he invested in Elon Musk's software company Zip2 have been rejected by Elon Musk. Other companies started by Musk include Neuralink, which is working on developing implantable brainmachine interfaces. He had this sense that it was definitely not a safe place to be, and he had to get the hell out.. According to media reports Errol reportedly owned an emerald mine in Zambia near Lake Tanganyika which enabled his family to live in luxury at the time. Hes the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. In an email to Rolling Stone, Musk's father said he smacked the Tesla CEO only once and on the bottom. He also said that the only criminal charges that had been filed against him from when he killed three home invaders in self-defense had been cleared. It would have been great if someone was paying for my college, but my dad had neither the ability nor the inclination to do so. I felt sorry for my father, because my mother had all three kids. So we had this planeload of contraband and an overdue passport from another person. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. To me, he sure is trying to make the world better right now, and that's the best thing he could do with his father's money. Errol. ", Musk tackled it on Twitter as the story circulated, but his denials do not explicitly contradict his father's tale of the bizarre airplane-emerald mine trade. Bill Gates' mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM. Note: The reference to Zip2 concerned Elon's "first enterprise" in 1995. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. In a 2017 email to employees which the company later released in response to one of the lawsuits, Elon warned against being a huge jerk to members of a historically less represented group. He also wrote, if someone is a jerk to you, but sincerely apologizes, it is important to be thick-skinned and accept that apology.. Like his son, the wealthy business owner who was once rumored to be the co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine has also been mired in controversy. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble? For the state of Texas, The Onion printed, "Elon Musk: Apartheid.". Still, Elon's tweets leave just enough room for Errol's story to be accurate, even if the inferences about his family's wealth are not. It was not a good idea.. He will plan evil. By Michael Hein "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." Errol Musk, the family's patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. We were very wealthy. Its obvious why Musk would want to distance himself from apartheid in every possible way. Then he'd sue me and say that I was unfit to parent.". It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would later break the rules of the motoring business with Tesla, then go on to change spaceflight with SpaceX. Aside from that hes just dumb. He said, They just walked into Tiffanys and said, Do you want to buy some emeralds? And they sold two emeralds: one was for $800, and I think the other one was for $1,200. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. "Elon Musk's family owns an emerald mine" was corrected to "Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine." "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money)." Hull, Dana, and Patrick May. But the emerald mine story keeps coming back. Instead Errol returned to South Africa with a half-share in a Zambian emerald mine, which would help to fund his family's lavish lifestyle of yachts, skiing holidays, and expensive computers. 2023 The Moguldom Nation. Errol Musk, the father of Elon Musk, told British tabloid The Sun Wednesday that he had a second and previously-unknown child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, in 2019 leaving many. Clash, Jim. [17] Later in life, after splitting from Heide Bezuidenhout, he fathered two children with her daughter (his former step-daughter) Jana Bezuidenhout; a son born in 2017 and a daughter born in 2019. On holidays, Errol and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. So I thought, I can be company. Yeah, I was sad for my father. While His Dad Was Sleeping." Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt," Elon tweeted in December 2019. The Twitter account no longer exists. . Note: Reporting from Esquire.com said that Elon moved from South Africa to Canada in 1988. Meanwhile, Elon has himself admitted that his father has a very high IQ and is brilliant at engineering. In 2017, he also told Rolling Stone that Errol was the youngest person to get a professional engineers qualification in South Africa., Im naturally good at engineering thats because I inherited it from my father, the worlds richest man stated. Errol Musk was born in Pretoria South Africa to Walter Henry James and Cora Amelia Robinson. Move over, Elon theres another Musk hitting the headlines. We were going to fly into Jeddah and there was a religious holiday and they said if we come in now we have to pay $2,000 but if we wait 10 days we can come in at no charge. My dad was not physically violent with me. Not for 'At Least' a Few Weeks, Says Elon Musk, Elon Musk's Ex Justine Calls Twitter Employees' Letter Protesting Reported Staff Cuts a 'Very Bad Idea', Elon Musk Says He's Buying Twitter to 'Help Humanity' And Doesn't Want It to Be 'Free-for-All Hellscape', Elon Musk Says Kanye West's Twitter Was Reinstated Before He Took Over the Company, Elon Musk Plans to Cut 75 Percent of Twitter's Workforce If He Takes Over the Company: Report. I couldn't even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. While he has given a few rare interviews, much of the publicly known information about him has come from his estranged son Elon or his ex-wife Maye Musk, neither of whom have had complimentary things to say about the engineer and onetime emerald mine owner. The eccentric billionaire once again attempted to set the record straight about his familys emerald mines to respond to Twitter user @howlpolitically. In a rare interview with Forbes, Errol revealed that his parents were the first to ever fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane. [14], Musk was married to Heide Bezuidenhout for eighteen years and helped her raise her young daughter Jana Bezuidenhout, a child from a previous relationship. "In my experience, there is nothing you can do," he added. Errol and his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, share two children. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. I said, Oh, all right. ", In 2018, he explained that he was helping Jana get over a breakup at the time of Rushi's conception, but he initially assumed the baby's father was Jana's ex. All Rights Reserved. He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Musk, with whom he has two children, Alexandra and Rose. We also reached out to both men for additional comment and to ask if they could potentially provide any evidence that would support their statements, even though they didn't start the rumor. Business Insider South Africa, 22 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2. Has even greenlit racism by saying those on receiving end need thick skin.https://t.co/DhpANcrqNp https://t.co/OESO1BJTtE, Can he be held responsible for his dad's ethics tho? But I've been in physical danger before. Musk's critics often paraphrase the story on social media, who accuse him not only of benefitting from wealth rather than genius but of indirectly profiting from Apartheid. Below, we have laid out all of the data that we found, including examples of the rumor, as well as stories from newspaper archives and blogs. Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council in 1972 and was an outspoken advocate for abolishing apartheid. Here's what to know about Elon Musk's estranged father, Errol Musk. ", The Tesla founder also said there was no way to repair his relationship with his father. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Instead, we will concentrate on the two Business Insider South Africa articles mentioned by Arnold that appeared to provide the roots of the "apartheid emerald mine" rumor. Copyright Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. And thats when Musk's father was offered half an emerald mine in return for half of his earnings. People may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. "Exploring the otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk", "How To Raise A Billionaire: An Interview With Elon Musk's Father, Errol Musk", "Who Is Elon Musk's Estranged Father? He was only physically violent when I was very young., He also said, You have no idea about how bad. "Elon Musk: The College Years." According to the story, in the mid-1980s, Errol and a copilot landed their plane near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, where "a group of Italians" offered them 80,000 pounds in British currency in order to buy the plane. In an interview with The Sun, Errol recalled the attack, claiming that he was confronted by a group of seven men inside his home and shot back at the intruders after they opened fire. Elon, by his father's recollection then probably 16 years old, and his brother Kimbal, decided to sell emeralds to Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York . [18][19] Musk described the first child as unplanned. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to Twitter to answer claims made by The Onion about how his family made their money in apartheid South Africa. I wish. EM: Company death not succeeding with the company causes me a lot more stress than physical danger. "Elon Musk's Vision of an Electric-Car Future." [13] After engaging in extra-marital affairs,[4] Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, and both sons moved in with their father. "So I became a half-owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years," Errol said. Errol Musk says teenage Elon Musk once casually walked around with emeralds in his pocket. "Errol also quoted a lower number to me over the phone," Arnold wrote. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire." ---. Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance Rolling Stone reported in 2017 that Errol was, by his own account, making money in the often dangerous worlds of construction and emerald mining at times so much that he claims he couldnt close his safe.. TheSouthAfrican.com is all about South Africa and the stories that affect South Africans, wherever they are in the world. The Onion, 22 Mar. You have no idea. It spoke of the divorce of Elon's parents, Errol and Maye Musk, and also contained a quick mention of an emerald mine. "One thing led to another you can call it God's plan or nature's plan. It was revealed last weekthat he welcomed twochildren with an executiveat his artificial intelligence company, Neuralink, just weeks before hissecond child with his ex-girlfriend, Grimes,was born. For a while, I thought things were so obvious that everyone must know this., However, Elon has disputed claims that he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. We went to this guys prefab, and he opened his safe, and there [were] just stacks of money, and he paid me out 80,000, It was a huge amount of money, he said. Kaizer Chiefs to sign more Stellenbosch players? I was 15 and really wanted to go with him but didn't realize how dangerous it was. And, on at least one occasion, his now famous son also took his hand at dealing in the gems, with peculiar results. His father, Errol Musk, had a casual attitude towards the family's considerable wealth, including the stones that came from the Zambian emerald mine in which Errol owned a half share. On Wednesday, Errol confirmed that he and Jana had welcomed a second child, a daughter who is now 3. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. Errol Musk bought 50% of the emerald mine in 1969 for about 40,000, which is equal to about 160 000 today. R/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 5 Dec. 2019, www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/e6j76f/his_family_stole_an_emerald_mine/. Bridges to Italy tweeted, Yeah, hes not that bright, just like the guy who started this thread. On May 22, 2020, Bloomberg.com published an interview with Elon, which was penned by Ashlee Vance. @spylinen tweeted, The mine was in Zambia, which became independent of the UK in 1964. Get down!'. Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. Business Insider South Africa, 23 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-dad-tells-bi-about-the-familys-casual-attitude-to-wealth-2018-2. Father and son have a complicated history. "There was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money." Several decades ago, Errol allegedly shot and killed three armed intruders who broke into his Johannesburg home. On July 3, 2020, Elon tweeted about the subject again, responding to a since-deleted tweet with, "I don't have an 'emerald mine,' nor was I given free money from anyone, inheritance or otherwise. Errols other children we also shocked and uncomfortable about the surprise pregnancy. The funny thing is I've not actually been that nervous. Invest in the future today. Twitter, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/. The 76-year-old is most notable for. We sought evidence in the case that they still had any documentation from past decades about the mine, the around $100,000 in student debt that Elon has repeatedly said he had accumulated during college, or anything else related to Elon's early finances that they have mentioned in past interviews. Note: Less than two weeks after Arnold's piece was published in 2021, the satirical website The Onion printed a story with the headline, "The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money." He also co-founded PayPal, which means a Twitter user said The WHOLE bank on the internet was started by him (yes, your credit card as well). They still dont like it. ", Though he claimed Elon and Kimbal were upset with him for fathering a child with a woman they felt was "their sister," Errol told The Sun, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, grew up in South Africa and made his way via Canada to the U.S. as a transfer student before attending the Wharton School and becoming the billionaire tech founder he is today. All About Errol Musk", "50 years of Elon Musk's huge wealth, from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla", "How Elon Musk made his money - from emeralds to SpaceX and Tesla", "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege", "At 68, Maye Musk, the Mother of Elon, Is Reclaiming the Spotlight", "El padre de Elon Musk dice que la ambicin de su hijo se debe a la educacin austera que recibi: "Fui un padre estricto", "BBC Two - The Elon Musk Show, Series 1, Episode 2", "Elon Musk's dad reveals he fathered an "unplanned" child with his stepdaughter", "Elon Musk's father has baby with step-daughter he has known since she was four", "Elon Musk's father confirms second child with his own stepdaughter - report", "Errol Musk explains why he got his stepdaughter pregnant", "Ayah Elon Musk Punya Bayi dari Hubungan dengan Putri Tirinya", "Meet Elon Musk's controversial father, Errol", "Errol Musk hat Kind mit Stieftochter: "Wir sind zum Fortpflanzen auf der Welt", "Elon Musk's Dad Says Company Wants His Sperm to Impregnate 'High-Class' Women", Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Errol_Musk&oldid=1142497006, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 18:50.