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. Here's a summary of our findings: We located reporting from as far back as 2009 and 2014 that said when Elon Musk ("Elon" hereafter) was a child in South Africa in the 1980s, his father ("Errol" hereafter) at some point owned "a stake in an emerald mine" near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia, not South Africa. "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." 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. Nothing, nothing. On Wednesday, Errol confirmed that he and Jana had welcomed a second child, a daughter who is now 3. Errol himself has an adventurous streak and is an avid sailor and pilot. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. 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. Copyright Blue Sky Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire. We reached out to Clash and Forbes PR to ask why the interview was no longer available. Whats very difficult for others is easy for me. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Elon Musk has a wild story!" he captioned it. [1] His father was a South African veteran of World War II and his mother was British. In December 2019, Elon denied the emerald mine-and-lavish-lifestyle story on Twitter, saying it was a lie. Rumor is Errol Musk owned an emerald mine. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done," Elon said. "They were confronted by it every day," he said. ", 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.". Fortier, Alexander. Jain, Sanya. Journalism strengthens democracy. [20] Musk has a total of seven children. 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. Meet. I've tried everything. 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. [15][16] At the time of their marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout was only four years old and lived together with them. "Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine." In the interview, the Tesla owner briefly mentioned that his father had a share in an emerald mine in Zambia. Elon and Kimbal allegedly sold 2 emeralds: one worth $800 and another worth $1200. 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 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. It was kind of weird for them to walk into Tiffanys. 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 2017, Errol told Rolling Stone that while he has never intentionally hurt or threatened anyone, he once shot and killed a group of burglars at his home in Johannesburg, though he says he was cleared of all charges because he acted in self-defense. Instead, Musk has sought to dispel the general belief that he comes from wealth. It was authored by Jeremy Arnold with The Save Journalism Committee. Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. 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. [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born. Elon has himself admitted that his father has a very high IQ and is brilliant at engineering.. He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Musk, with whom he has two children, Alexandra and Rose. 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.. 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. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford. Once the kids were living with me, they visited their father some weekends. Answer these 2 simple questions & WIN R1000 in cash! 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 . Father and son have a complicated history. My Dad provided 10% of a ~$200k angel funding round much later, but by then risk was reduced & round would've happened anyway.". He was only physically violent when I was very young., He also said, You have no idea about how bad. 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. According to Ashlee Vances 2017 biography of the Tesla founder, The Musk family owned one of the biggest houses in Pretoria thanks to the success of Errols engineering business, which included large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base.. Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. Other companies started by Musk include Neuralink, which is working on developing implantable brainmachine interfaces. He told The New York Times that as a member of the Progressive Party, he opposed apartheid. [11][5] Maye has stated that Errol beat her. With a net worth of $37 billion, Musk hopes to revolutionize transportation on Earth and in space, bringing fully-electric vehicles to the mass market through his auto manufacturing company, Tesla. The buyer also offered Errol the option to buy half of an emerald mine with that cash. . Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. This article is actually accurate: https://t.co/eVpCX9V1NB. He will plan evil, Elon tearfully told Rolling Stone in 2017. ---. Where is this B.S. So it was very formative for him. 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. [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. It is still hard to discern whether this story is true and what conclusions can be drawn. AskMen, 2 Jan. 2015, https://www.askmen.com/entertainment/right-stuff/elon-musk-interview.html. My dad was not physically violent with me. According to reporting we reviewed, the stake his father had in the emerald mine appeared to have both started and ended in the 1980s. Errol was born in South Africa to a British mother and a South African father. I couldn't even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. 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. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble? r/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 18 Dec. 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/rj689s/elon_musk_and_the_emerald_mine/. "He also claims he was getting emeralds from other sources, with only 60-70% coming from this venture." "He didn't own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt," Elon tweeted in December 2019. They still dont like it. In my experience, there is nothing you can do, Elon said of Errol. [2] His grandmother was the first chiropractor in Canada. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. Its so terrible, you cant believe it.. 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.. [22] He is estranged from his son Elon. His tweet is now viral with over 9.1 million views. 1/2This article is false. An avid pilot and sailor, as well as an electrical and mechanical engineer, he made his money consulting and developing properties and retired early. "There was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money." "Elon Musk Left a South Africa That Was Rife With Misinformation and White Privilege." 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. For the state of Texas, The Onion printed, "Elon Musk: Apartheid.". The child, a boy named Elliot Rush, is now 5 years old. "Zip2." He also added, "'Self-made billionaires' are a myth." 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 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. 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. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done., He was such a terrible human being. It was not a good idea.. You have no idea.. We sent these messages on Nov. 16, but did not receive responses before publishing this story on the following day. Born in 1971, Musk grew up in Pretoria, South Africa. 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. Errol made money by consulting and developing properties, Forbes reported. luis carruthers @orthereaboot tweeted, When the same pattern of racist behavior happens at all $tsla locations, its the company thats racist, and the fish rots from @elonmusks head.. On Aug. 17, 2009, The New Yorker printed one of the earliest known searchable records of an emerald mine being tied to the Musk name. Sager, Jessica. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. The eccentric billionaire once again attempted to set the record straight about his familys emerald mines to respond to Twitter user @howlpolitically. Musk's father, Errol, an engineer, married Maye when she was 22, and Musk was born shortly . The article was titled, "I Talked to Elon Musk about Journalism and the Blood Emeralds Story.". The tweet was shared as a screenshot on Imgur.com, which showed the image had been viewed more than 300,000 times. However, again, the story was at least partially unavailable on that website, too. 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. Errol Musk says teenage Elon Musk once casually walked around with emeralds in his pocket. "I was active in opposing the National Party and their apartheid," he said in the post." Shame on you, Onion. ", "You have no idea about how bad. The share in the mine wasnt acquired until the 1980s. by Marilynn Manuel 13-02-2023 13:43 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. CEO Elon Musk said his father Errol ran out of money in the '90s and was provided financial support by the entrepreneur and his brother. Errol and Heide eventually divorced after an 18-year marriage. 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. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. In the meantime, Musk continues to make waves on multiple technological fronts, all while raising concerns about workers' rights and income inequality. I'm going to wait until he comes to his senses. "Everybody I knew called him 'the Pig' because he treated me so badly in public. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. * The headline of this article was updated toreflect that the Musk family once owned the mine in question, and no longer do. The Save Journalism Committee, 9 Mar. 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. Business Insider South Africa, 22 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2. The New Yorker, 17 Aug. 2009, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/24/plugged-in. 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. Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. 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. Move over, Elon theres another Musk hitting the headlines. It was that lifestyle, Errol says, that turned Elon into the kind of merchant adventurer who would laterbreak the rules of the motoring businesswith Tesla, then go on tochange spaceflight with SpaceX, BI reported. He also called the whole rumor "BS.". 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. 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. We were very wealthy. "A Teenage Elon Musk Once Casually Sold His Father's Emeralds to Tiffany & Co. So we got one, thank God at a discount, and with that computer he taught himself, using Disk Operating System, which is DOS, to program, Errol said. [4], Musk met Maye Haldeman when he was 11 years old and they were childhood friends before marrying in 1970. "'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." Friend, Tad. [21] As of 2022, Musk and Jana Bezuidenhout were no longer living together. 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. Still, it wasarchived by the Internet Archive. Elon Musk addressed the recent social storm when claims related his family's emerald mines in apartheid-South Africa resurfaced online. Image via Instagram @mayemusk. 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. Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. Invest in the future today. 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 seed money from his father's wealth from the mine that made it possible for him to become the American billionaire he is today. Arnold paraphrased his answers, publishing that he said "it was a handshake deal with a Panamanian man that resulted in something like 110 emeralds up front and then a semi-regular trickle of rough stones over a few years following," and that "there was never formal ownership.". He had this sense that it was definitely not a safe place to be, and he had to get the hell out.. Jump to Main content Search Account Menu icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal. "[4][8], In 1972, he was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party. This story will be updated if any further details come to light. She won't speak to me or engage me if we're in the same room which we have been often.". 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. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. They never made it to their destination. After the end of the article, a note was added that read, "BI SA reached out to Elon for confirmation of the tale, but he did not respond. 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. A post on Reddit mentioned a theory that said Elon "convinced these publications to remove the articles," but there's no evidence to support that.
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