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. "The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money." 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. Errol. coming from?. "Elon Musk Hits out at US Professor over Emerald Mine Claims: 'Idiot and Liar.'" 2014, https://www.newspapers.com/image/878211644/. ", 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.". "One thing led to another you can call it God's plan or nature's plan. 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. These tweets from December 2019 appeared to have stemmed, at least in part, from a since-deleted tweet from a user with the handle @1aprildaniels. He was only physically violent when I was very young., He also said, You have no idea about how bad. 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. In 2019, a Twitter user claimed that Musk's father Errol owned an emerald mine. Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. Errol Musk was born in Pretoria South Africa to Walter Henry James and Cora Amelia Robinson. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Musk's revelation about his father's financial situation in the '90s comes after a Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, claimed on Twitter that 'self-made billionaires' are a myth and Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. The emerald mine was not mentioned in that interview. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford. [18][19] Musk described the first child as unplanned. Elon Musk isn't innovative. "I said, 'Oh, all right.' He also sent a link to another interview he did with Elon in 2016. This story will be updated if any further details come to light. And we spent three weeks making our rent-controlled apartment livable in Toronto, Maye tweeted. His mother Maye responded on Twitter in December 2019 in defense of Elon. 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.". Meet. The Tesla CEO has fathered 10 children. odakyu11. However, both Elon and . The narrative of Elon Musks wealth coming from his familys apartheid gains is one that started a few years ago when Business Insider wrote an article highlighting the Musk familys involvement in mining during SAs apartheid years. "Errol also quoted a lower number to me over the phone," Arnold wrote. 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? His tweet is now viral with over 9.1 million views. But I've been in physical danger before. And then thered still be all these notes sticking out, and wed sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.. By Michael Hein "'His Family Stole an Emerald Mine.'" 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. Errol and Elons feud has reportedly been exacerbated by the patriarchs eyebrow-raising relationships. "Exploring the Otherworldly Ambitions of Elon Musk." Errol and a co-pilot were flying a plane from South Africa to England to sell the aircraft but when they couldn't make a scheduled stop in Saudi Arabia, he pivoted his plan and changed his life. . We did not receive a response before this story was published. Smart Policies are as low as $30 a month, No Medical Exam Required ", "You have no idea about how bad. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. Here is the incredible true story of Errol Musk and the striking similarities he shares with his powerful son. ", Errol and Elon have an acrimonious relationship. 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." TheSouthAfrican.com is all about South Africa and the stories that affect South Africans, wherever they are in the world. On holidays, Errol and his kids would travel, he said: to Europe, Hong Kong, throughout the United States. 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. [6][7] In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk boasted that as a result of the emerald mine "we had so much money we couldn't even close our safe. ", 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. I can't see any reason not to. His net worth is. 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. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. 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. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.". "Nothing, nothing. "I'm naturally good at engineering that's because I inherited it from my father," he told Rolling Stone. The Associated Press, 20 July 2021, https://apnews.com/article/business-science-3546262d41f4c84763aa15339f642a5a. We did not receive a response from Forbes PR. And I was too scared to tell anyone [about his violence]," Maye told Harper's Bazaar in 2019. 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. 2023 The Moguldom Nation. He added that Elon left the country as "a clear indication of his willingness to not support the political suppression in the country. "Zip2." They still dont like it. Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. 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. On Wednesday, Errol confirmed that he and Jana had welcomed a second child, a daughter who is now 3. Here's what to know about Elon Musk's estranged father, Errol Musk. ---. It is often claimed that Musk's father, Errol Musk, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine, and that Musk subsequently enjoyed an . 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. Musk, Errol. 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The article's headline was changed in late July or early August 2020, which appeared to be after Errol made his Facebook poston July 27, which called the dated article's claims into question. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in . According to the Twitter flag, Musk claimed in 2014 to Forbes that he had an emerald mine in Zambia. 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.. "Everybody I knew called him 'the Pig' because he treated me so badly in public. He was bullied at school. The netizen claimed that the Business Insider article didnt show the real extent of the Musk family profiting from apartheid. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. @Keewa tweeted on May 9, 2020, Remind: Elon Musk inherited money from his fathers apartheid emerald mine, that doesnt mean hes clever. 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. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. The child, a boy named Elliot Rush, is now 5 years old. Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. Where is this bs coming from? Errol Musk, the familys patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. Errol was born in South Africa to a British mother and a South African father. "Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine." Errol built his wealth as a prominent electromechanical engineer and entrepreneur in South Africa, reports The South African. You have no idea.. The article was titled, "I Talked to Elon Musk about Journalism and the Blood Emeralds Story.". You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. In December 2019, Elon denied the emerald mine-and-lavish-lifestyle story on Twitter, saying it was a lie. 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. Elon called the story "actually accurate." 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. 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. 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. The story included reporting of Elon's denials that the emerald mine had provided any seed money for the wealth he would later accumulate. Errol named his price, and a deal was done. "We went to this guy's prefab [home] and he opened his safe," Errol said. All rights reserved. He had this sense that it was definitely not a safe place to be, and he had to get the hell out.. 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. Standing with the cash in his hand, Errol was made another offer he couldn't refuse: Would he like to buy half an emerald mine for half of his new riches? At 17, Musk decided to leave home, heading first to Canada and then the U.S. for university. There were AK-47s all over the place and I'm thinking, "Man, this could really go bad.". 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). In that way, Errol might be like estranged Elon after all. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. 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. [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. Errol talked about Elons fascination with computers when they first came out in the mid-80s, during an interview on radio station 702 in Johannesburg, as reported by Forbes. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.. Business Insider South Africa, 22 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2. "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.". 2021, https://www.theonion.com/the-richest-person-in-every-state-and-how-they-made-the-1846312073. The article attributed the source of Elon Musks wealth to apartheid. 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. "So we decided to head back to Lake Tanganyika from where we were, I think we were in Djibouti.". 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. According to the Internet Archive, the article was still available months after it was published, onSept. 1, 2014, but was gone by Sept. 18. Errol Musk says teenage Elon Musk once casually walked around with emeralds in his pocket. . 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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. Fortier, Alexander. According to the story, "When [Elon] was elevenabout the time that he sold his first piece of software, a video game called Blastar Musk told his mother that he was going to move back to Pretoria to live with his father, Errol, an electrical engineer who would later own an auto-parts store and a share in an emerald mine.". Several respondents on social media disputed the emerald mine and privileged-lifestyle story, defending Musks intelligence and questioning the intelligence of the person who started the thread. "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? "I was active in opposing the National Party and their apartheid," he said in the post." Errol Musk bought 50% of the emerald mine in 1969 for about 40,000, which is equal to about 160 000 today. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. 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. 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. At the conference, Elon talked to some professors who told Errol, This boy needs to get his hands on one of these computers. "He also claims he was getting emeralds from other sources, with only 60-70% coming from this venture." 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. The 51-year-old has refuted claims that he grew up rich amid statements that his father Errol owned an emerald mine in South Africa. We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred. Former Tesla employees have reported racist behavior and attempted to sue over it. In his interview with Business Insider South Africa, Errol said that he was to blame for his divorce from model Maye Musk, with whom he shares Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. 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 . "Is It True That Elon Musk's Family Got Their Wealth from Apartheid Emerald Mining?" My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would've happened anyway.". And, on at least one occasion, his now famous son also took his hand at dealing in the gems, with peculiar results. He is the father of Elon Musk, the CEO of 'SpaceX,' 'Tesla, Inc.,' and 'Neuralink' and one of the co-founders of 'PayPal.' Errol is mostly known for his scandalous life and his estranged relationship with his children. 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. He would throw out everything they arrived with, so I had to buy them all new clothes and school things. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. However, $800 was probably pocket change for the family, judging by what Musk's father told the site. [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. "Elon Musk's Vision of an Electric-Car Future." This is a pretty awful lie. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. [22] He is estranged from his son Elon. We were very wealthy. [4], Musk met Maye Haldeman when he was 11 years old and they were childhood friends before marrying in 1970. We've received your submission. Im not sure if replying to a satire site and amplifying their articles reach is necessarily the best idea, but Musk felt that this was a hill worth dying on. "I paid my own way through collegethrough student loans, scholarships, working jobsand ended up with $100,000 of student debt," Musk says. At some point after the shooting, the relationship between dad Errol and son Elon soured. While the story merely pointed to the facts that apartheid existed at the time and the Musk family made money from emerald mining, Musk to his frustration has found it hard to brush off the narrative of his wealth being linked to apartheid. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com, Image Via PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. The Onion, a satirical publication, shared. Nothing, nothing. 1/2This article is false. 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. It was not a good idea.. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day.. He once tweeted he arrived in 1989, not 1988, however. Errol also shared how his sons got involved in the family business and recalled a time when Elon and his brother Kimbal sold a few of the emeralds from his mine to Tiffany & Co. in New York City. Earlier in this story, we referenced a July 3, 2020, tweet from Elon that mentioned Vance's interview. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. Answer these 2 simple questions & WIN R1000 in cash! Get down!'. The patriarch confirmed the shootings to the publication in 2017, saying manslaughter charges were later dropped because he acted in self-defense.