A Twitter user claimed in December 2019 that Elon Musk's privileged upbringing included his father, Errol Musk, who owned an emerald mine [and] who could bankroll his education. However, the Tesla CEO begged to differ. SpaceX, his rocket company, is valued at $20 billion-plus. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford., In a follow-up tweet, Elon said his father didnt 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. We also reached out to media relations personnel at SpaceX, where he is the founder and CEO, as well as Tesla and Twitter. Note: Some of the tweets that promoted the rumor said that Elon did not found Tesla, which was true. Its obvious why Musk would want to distance himself from apartheid in every possible way. Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance by Marilynn Manuel 13-02-2023 13:43 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. Errol and Heide had two children together, Alexandra and Asha Rose. In 2018, Musk also told Business Insider that his father Errol purchased a 50 per cent share in the mine after selling a plane. His net worth is. 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. When Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, a then-8-year-old Elon chose to live with his dad. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. In that way, Errol might be like estranged Elon after all. I was 15 and really wanted to go with him but didn't realize how dangerous it was. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. 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. "We went to this guy's prefab [home] and he opened his safe," Errol said. Their half-sister.. . 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. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to. The claim attracted a response from the billionaire, who said that the claim isn't true. 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." He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.". We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. 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. What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. Nothing, nothing. The 76-year-old hasnt ruled out having more children, saying: The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce.. There was a shooting in the living room, and I guess his father shot them dead. Bill Gates' mom helped Microsoft get a deal with IBM. Though Errol has made headlines in recent years after the births of his two youngest children, he seemingly avoids the spotlight. Soon after Elon left for Canada, his mother, Maye, moved there too, along with Elons brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble? Heres his story. He began his career as an electromechanical engineer. mark_able_jones_. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. Errol Musk was born in Pretoria South Africa to Walter Henry James and Cora Amelia Robinson. Below we have provided a small sampling of the many different ways the rumor has been framed in past years. "I screwed up the marriage, I was totally responsible. [23], In 1998, Musk shot and killed three out of six or seven burglars who forced their way into his Johannesburg home and who opened fire upon detection.[24]. 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. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. Elon Musk was highlighted as the wealthiest resident of Texas, Americas second-biggest state. The 76-year-old is most notable for. (We'll have more on Vance's Bloomberg.com interview later in this story.). ---. We reached out to Clash and Forbes PR to ask why the interview was no longer available. The buyer also offered Errol the option to buy half of an emerald mine with that cash. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. We had so much money at times we couldnt even close our safe, he explained, adding that they would need one person to hold the money in place and another to close the safe door. 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. Note: The reference to Zip2 concerned Elon's "first enterprise" in 1995. In a February 2018 interview with Business Insider South Africa, Musk's father said he did own half share in an emerald mine in Zambia. 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. Former Tesla employee Marcus Vaughn, who worked in the Fremont, California, factory in 2017, alleged that the companys production floor was a hotbed for racist behavior. Supervisors regularly used the N word around Black workers and he said he was fired after complaining to human resources about workplace harassment. [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born. Born in 1971, Musk grew up in Pretoria, South Africa. 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. . At the conference, Elon talked to some professors who told Errol, This boy needs to get his hands on one of these computers. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.. Offers may be subject to change without notice. My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would've happened anyway.". Zip2's purpose was to provide "a searchable business directory that could be described as an internet version of the yellow pages telephone directory with maps included," according to Britannica.com. Wayback Machine. As a child, Elon had a close relationship with his father and grew up prosperous in Pretoria. It was not a good idea.. Jain, Sanya. But by many accounts, the issues at the Tesla factory go beyond the need for a thick skin, New York Times reported. de Wet, Phillip. We've received your submission. "Back when I was ~$100k negative with student debt," he wrote. However, $800 was probably pocket change for the family, judging by what Musk's father told the site. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. The tweet was shared as a screenshot on Imgur.com, which showed the image had been viewed more than 300,000 times. You have no idea.. Where is this bs coming from? TheSouthAfrican.com is all about South Africa and the stories that affect South Africans, wherever they are in the world. "The Man Who's Revolutionizing The Future Of Driving -- And The Universe." 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. While His Dad Was Sleeping." "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. In my experience, there is nothing you can do, Elon said of Errol. There, the two South Africans ran into a group of Italians who, as it happened, were in the market for an airplane. Errol built his wealth as a prominent electromechanical engineer and entrepreneur in South Africa, reports The South African. It was also shared on Reddit.com. "We were very wealthy. Although Tesla stands out as a groundbreaking company at the forefront of the electric car revolution, its standard operating procedure at the Tesla factory is pre-civil-rights-era race discrimination, Vaughn wrote in his complaint, according to a Daily Beast report. When the same pattern of racist behavior happens at all $tsla locations, its the company thats racist, and the fish rots from @elonmusk s head.https://t.co/aKAP7vrT6G https://t.co/EMN9xQH06V. Elon Musks family wealth has once again resurfaced as a talking point. Musk left his father behind at the age of 17 to pursue his dreams in North America and escape conscription into the South African military. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. Headded, also on Dec. 28, "We started Zip2 with ~$2k from me plus my overclocked home-built PC, ~$5k from my bro & ~$8k from Greg Kouri (such a good guy he is greatly missed). 2021, https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-musk-about-journalism. This story will be updated if any further details come to light. R/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 5 Dec. 2019, www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/e6j76f/his_family_stole_an_emerald_mine/. ", 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.". The emerald mine was not mentioned in that interview. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. The New York Times, 5 May 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/world/africa/elon-musk-south-africa.html. Bloomberg.com, 22 May 2020. www.bloomberg.com, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-05-22/elon-musk-speaks-frankly-on-coronavirus-spacex-and-rage-tweets. "Can Elon Musk Really Get Us To Mars Within 10 Years?" "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege." Father and son have a complicated history. 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." 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.