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. However, in the recent Channel 4 documentary Elon Musk: Superhero or Supervillain, co-founder of SpaceX, Jim Cattrell, claimed Elon was home at the time. For 14 free days, you can have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features. "Exploring the Otherworldly Ambitions of Elon Musk." Father and son have a complicated history. 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. "So I became a half-owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years," Errol said. His net worth is. [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. Since at least 2018, a rumor has been shared online about Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk in regard to his father's purported past ownership of an "apartheid emerald mine" or "slave emerald mine." [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. The entire episode started when the satirical publication The Onion published a piece on the wealthiest person in each American state. 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. 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. So it was very formative for him. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Elon Musks bid to implant chips into human brains shot down by feds, How the feds spend $74M a year to try to censor Americans, US government-funded research tagged Americans for Twitter ban: report, Tesla stock slumps as Master Plan 3 event falls flat with investors, after confirming he fathered a second secret love child, once rumored to be the co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine, an outspoken advocate for abolishing apartheid, Ashlee Vances 2017 biography of the Tesla founder, that he welcomed twochildren with an executive, second child with his ex-girlfriend, Grimes. That conversation is more valuable but less newsworthy than just resurfacing the same lazy claims every few months, which are guaranteed to get clicks. ", Five days later on Feb. 28, Business Insider SA published a second article with the headline, "Elon Musk's family owns an emerald mine in Zambia here's the fascinating story of how they came to own it.". Errol was born in South Africa to a British mother and a South African father. In 1970, Errol married modelMaye Haldeman Musk before the pair welcomed three children: Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. The user tweeted: If this is half of an article is a small glimpse into the apartheid mines his [family-owned] haha even [T]he Onion tells more truthful stories than CNN and Fox. [9], Errol Musk's claims that he invested in Elon Musk's software company Zip2 have been rejected by Elon Musk. [21] As of 2022, Musk and Jana Bezuidenhout were no longer living together. Below we have provided a small sampling of the many different ways the rumor has been framed in past years. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane to a group of Italians. Elon Musk's father planned to fly a plane from South Africa to England and sell it once they got there. South Africa Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican Number: 2005/028472/07. The child, a boy named Elliot Rush, is now 5 years old. Elon also denied that Errol invested in the company. Arnold, Jeremy. Moneycontrol.com, 21 Sept. 2022, https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/elon-musk-hits-out-at-us-professor-over-emerald-mine-claims-idiot-and-liar-9208281.html. Though Errol has made headlines in recent years after the births of his two youngest children, he seemingly avoids the spotlight. Musk, who is never shy of saying his say online, took to Twitter to show his disappointment with The Onion and took the opportunity to shout-out the publications competition, The Babylon Bee. 1/2This article is false. Errol and Elons feud has reportedly been exacerbated by the patriarchs eyebrow-raising relationships. It was authored by Jeremy Arnold with The Save Journalism Committee. 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. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done, he continued. Their half-sister.. Nothing, nothing. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. This is a pretty awful lie. In the mid 1980s, Elon Musks father Errol and a copilot were on their way to England aboard a plane they hoped to sell when they landed there. "We went to . We did not receive a response before this story was published. One thing most of us can agree on is that there is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general, even those who didnt own mines benefitted from apartheid. "But I mean, we were living together. In the past, the Tesla CEO hasrespondedseveral times on Twitter about the emerald mine rumors. 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. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire." AskMen, 2 Jan. 2015, https://www.askmen.com/entertainment/right-stuff/elon-musk-interview.html. You have no idea. Jack @lets_gobaby tweeted, Ok but how does inheriting money mean you arent smart?. Musk, Errol. He is the father of business magnate and billionaire Elon Musk, restaurateur Kimbal Musk, and filmmaker Tosca Musk. For the state of Texas, The Onion printed, "Elon Musk: Apartheid.". Elon has himself admitted that his father has a very high IQ and is brilliant at engineering.. The interview is no longer available on the Forbes website. I said, Oh, all right. Wanderlust ran on both sides of the family. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably. Some of his most vocal detractors have promoted the idea that Musk, like Trump, began his career backed by the deep pockets of dear old dad. ---. Other companies started by Musk include Neuralink, which is working on developing implantable brainmachine interfaces. I'm going to wait until he comes to his senses. ", He grew up in South Africa and had the good fortune of doing so in an upper-middle-class home. 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. In that way, Errol might be like estranged Elon after all. "We were very wealthy. "Elon Musk's Vision of an Electric-Car Future." Soon after Elon left for Canada, his mother, Maye, moved there too, along with Elons brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca. "'His Family Stole an Emerald Mine.'" "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt," Elon tweeted in December 2019. 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. He's the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. An avid pilot and sailor, as well as an electrical and mechanical engineer, he made his money consulting and developing properties and retired early. She won't speak to me or engage me if we're in the same room which we have been often.". Elon Musk (~16 years old) & Kimbal Musk sold gems from the Zambian emerald mine to world-famous "Tiffany & Co." on Fifth Avenue in New York - one of the world's most famous jewelers. ", According to the story, Errol said that Elon "once walked the streets of New York with emeralds in his pocket." The emerald mine was not mentioned in that interview. As Arnold noted, the headline for this story was later corrected more than two years after it was published, sometime around late July or early August 2020,according to page captures from the Internet Archive. However, that as well as Errol's claim of owning half of an emerald mine is in stark contrast to what Elon has said about his father's wealth. After his divorce from Elons mother, Errol went on to wed HeideBezuidenhout, a young widow who already had two children, including 4-year-old Jana Bezuidenhout. He began his career as an electromechanical engineer. We also reached out to media relations personnel at SpaceX, where he is the founder and CEO, as well as Tesla and Twitter. He also called the whole rumor "BS.". If I could have another child I would. 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. My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would've happened anyway.". "They just walked into Tiffany's and said, 'Do you want to buy some emeralds?' "Zip2." In my experience, there is nothing you can do, Elon said of Errol. Elon Musk addressed the recent social storm when claims related his family's emerald mines in apartheid-South Africa resurfaced online. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. 2021, https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-Elon-Musks-family-got-their-wealth-from-apartheid-emerald-mining. 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. But I've been in physical danger before. "Can Elon Musk Really Get Us To Mars Within 10 Years?" odakyu11. Market Realist is a registered trademark. 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.. We've received your submission. He said that he sold and traded these emeralds himself and that at one point, Elon himself even went out to sell some of the stones. 2014, https://www.newspapers.com/image/878211644/. I couldnt even afford a second [computer] at [web software company] Zip2, so [I] programmed at night and the website only worked during the day. Friend, Tad. 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. 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). Meet. "What's very difficult for others is easy for me. The Tesla CEO once called his South African dad 'evil' and denied rumours of family wealth fuelled by an emerald mine - but are they ready to reconcile? Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. However, any reconciliation was apparently short-lived. Image via Instagram @mayemusk. Elon clarified that his father was never physically abusive toward him and that he once tried to mend the relationship by inviting his father to live with him in the United States. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. And, on at least one occasion, his now famous son also took his hand at dealing in the gems, with peculiar results. He was only physically violent when I was very young., He also said, You have no idea about how bad. And thats when Musk's father was offered half an emerald mine in return for half of his earnings. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. 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. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. He had this sense that it was definitely not a safe place to be, and he had to get the hell out.. From impregnating his stepdaughter to the emerald mine, here's what we know about Elon Musk's South African father Errol Musk. Elon, 51, was brought to tears discussing his dad in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, describing him as evil and a terrible human being.. Musk responded about the time when the photo was clicked. Musk's father, Errol, an engineer, married Maye when she was 22, and Musk was born shortly . "One thing led to another you can call it God's plan or nature's plan. After the divorce, Elon lived mostly with his father until he left South Africa at age 17 partly to avoid conscription in the South African army. The 76-year-old is most notable for being Elons estranged father, with the pair famously falling out several years ago. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. Given Elon Musks interest in exploration and adventure, its no surprise he descends from intrepid stock, and its Errols side of the family that is seemingly responsible for his innovative, envelope-pushing genes. Musk may not be a great guy, but I fail to see any apartheid link to his fathers emerald mine., @grard97 tweeted, Remind: Elon Musk owns an electric and autonomous car companyA private space landing rockets companyAn AI companyA Neuroscience companyA Solar Panel and energy storage companyThe WHOLE bank on the internet was started by him (yes, your credit card as well), @C49015142 tweeted, I thought I read in Malcolm Gladwells book David and Goliath that his company received $500 million from the US government, so we are all subsidizing him. Maye and Errol divorced in 1980 when Elon was about 9 years old. Its obvious why Musk would want to distance himself from apartheid in every possible way. Elon Musk addressed the recent social storm when claims related his familys emerald mines in apartheid-South Africa resurfaced online. [18][19] Musk described the first child as unplanned. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. "One thing he claims is he gave us a whole bunch of money to start, my brother and I, to start up our first company. FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ERROL MUSK 1. What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. Errol Musk, the familys patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. Once the Musk emerald story started circulating, and information about Musk's father Errol's past business dealings got out, a cavalcade of internet poo-pooers flocked to Twitter to lambast Musk . "And we got emeralds for the next six years.". In April 2014, Dana Hull and Patrick May penned an article for San Jose's The Mercury News with the headline, "The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk." 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., Errol subsequently told the publication in an email: Ive been accused of being a Gay, a Misogynist, a Paedophile, a Traitor, a Rat, a St (quite often), a Bastard (by many women whose attentions I did not return) and much more. For a while, I thought things were so obvious that everyone must know this.". Later, on Sept. 20, 2022, hecalledRobert Reich "an idiot and a liar" for tweeting a video that pushed the emerald mine wealth rumor as fact. The headline of the story read, "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money).". It was not a good idea.. @Keewa tweeted on May 9, 2020, Remind: Elon Musk inherited money from his fathers apartheid emerald mine, that doesnt mean hes clever. Musk readily jumps onto Twitter to refute the charges that his empire was forged with the aid of family wealth, and part of the reason he wanted to talk to merather comically given the rocket launch and, well, trollswas because the jabs bug him, and he hopes to set the record straight. His brother Kimbal was with him when the two brothers sold two of the gems to Tiffany & Co. for $2,000, according to their father. By email, Clash told us he had no idea why it was no longer hosted by Forbes. We reached out to AskMen.com to ask if the fact that some of the pages were gone was a glitch, or if it was a purposeful partial removal. Elon Musk: The Truth About His Dad and Emerald Mines, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes Should Remain On-Air Couple After ABC Exit, According to TV Host, King Charles' Reported Reason for Evicting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Revealed, Hoda Kotb Makes Brief 'Today Show' Appearance Amid Family Health Matter, 'Creed III': Why Sylvester Stallone and Rocky Balboa Are Missing From Latest Film, Disney World Brings Back 'Beauty & the Beast' Experience for First Time Since COVID-19 Pandemic Began, QVC Hosts Call it Quits After Nearly 20 Years, Florida Residents Urged to Use Caution With Tap Water After Man Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba. It was a lucrative decision. Elon Musk was highlighted as the wealthiest resident of Texas, Americas second-biggest state. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it. So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti., Errol Musk (father of one Elon Musk) on raising one of the world's most famous billionaires: http://t.co/Fg8xmqN1L0 pic.twitter.com/LVJyMdebZK. 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. Errol. 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. The way Errol tells it, that all started with an inconvenient religious holiday. "Elon Musk's Family Once Owned an Emerald Mine in Zambia Here's the Fascinating Story of How They Came to Own It." Musk's father said that Tiffanys set the $800 emerald in a ring and offered it for $24,000, which he said was an object lesson in retail markup for the family. 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. Elon called the story "actually accurate." Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. 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. I said, Oh, all right. 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. The netizen claimed that the Business Insider article didnt show the real extent of the Musk family profiting from apartheid. They still dont like it. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . ", 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. This is going to sound slightly crazy, but my father also had a share in an Emerald mine in Zambia. It is still hard to discern whether this story is true and what conclusions can be drawn. He has also dismissed rumors that his father co-owned a Zambian emerald mine, writing on Twitter in 2019: He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. - February 10, 2021 02:34 pm EST. Clash, Jim. 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 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. Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. But by many accounts, the issues at the Tesla factory go beyond the need for a thick skin, New York Times reported. I've tried everything. We reached out to Reich to ask if he could provide evidence of his assertion, but did not receive a response before this story was published. "'We Had so Much Money We Couldn't Even Close Our Safe': Elon Musk's Dad Tells BI about the Family's Insanely Casual Attitude to Wealth." Jump to Main content Search Account Menu icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal. Elon Musk has a wild story!" he captioned it. 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. The story also included the same information from Elon's tweets where he said again that he had "ended up with $100,000 of student debt. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his mother, Maye Musk. The 76-year-old hasnt ruled out having more children, saying: The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.. 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. According to reporting we reviewed, the stake his father had in the emerald mine appeared to have both started and ended in the 1980s. "Elon Musk: The College Years." [20] Musk has a total of seven children. Elon would later get his own pilot's license but no longer has time to fly. 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. Copyright 2023 Market Realist. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. The tweet was shared as a screenshot on Imgur.com, which showed the image had been viewed more than 300,000 times. 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. "I started my first company with $2,500, and I had one computer and a car that I bought for $1,400, and all that debt. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done., He was such a terrible human being. While His Dad Was Sleeping." After the divorce, Elon lived with his father in Pretoria, where he attended Pretoria Boys High. 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. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. "Is It True That Elon Musk's Family Got Their Wealth from Apartheid Emerald Mining?" Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. "They didn't like it.". Quora, 9 Mar. The wealth earned from the investment in the mine was quantified to be about $400,000 USD, taking into account inflation when Arnold's piece was written in 2021, according to Errol. Musk, Elon. "So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti.". ", 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. ---. By some accounts, Elon is reported to have witnessed the attack, with Errol later telling Rolling Stone that he acted in self-defense; he was never convicted of any crime. 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. Kaizer Chiefs to sign more Swallows players. All Rights Reserved. Ask him." Unlike his son, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Errol has mostly flown under the radar, though the father of seven has had an increasingly public profile over the last few years, largely due to his complicated family relationships. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . 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. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. With his new riches, Errol also bought half of an emerald mine. The funding we raised for our first company came from a small group of random angel investors in Silicon Valley. 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.". "I said, 'Oh, all right.' He did the investment after selling a plane for about 80 000. "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com, Image Via PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. 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. " he told the outlet. I was 15 and really wanted to go with him but didn't realize how dangerous it was. Elon may have been 6 or 7 years old at the time and begged his dad to get him a ticket to a very early computer conference in South Africa. After Maye and Errol divorced in 1980, Elon mostly lived with his father, who says he owned thoroughbred horses, a yacht, several houses and a Cessna. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years., When the Tesla CEO was around 16 years old, he and his brother Kimbal sold two emeralds to Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in New York City while Errol snoozed, according to what Musk's father told Business Insider South Africa. Vance, Ashlee. He just had a rich dad and a got lucky. And I was too scared to tell anyone [about his violence]," Maye told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. ", 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.". "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege." According to a Facebook post from Errol, the Zambian emerald mine he held a stake in "collapsed in 1989. The gist of the claim was that Elon's father, Errol Musk, who reports say has been estranged from his son for some time, owned an emerald mine during apartheid in South Africa, and that it was . He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.". You have no idea. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. Errol owned one of the largest homes in Pretoria and took his children on many overseas trips, according to the book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, written by Ashlee Vance.
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