Musk, Elon. But the emerald mine story keeps coming back. 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. I couldn't even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. The rumor of the "apartheid emerald mine" received a spike in shares around the time that Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter in late 2022. 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. - February 10, 2021 02:34 pm EST. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. This story was picked up by other news outlets and peddled as a sign of the Musk family's "lavish lifestyle. Elon was said to be particularly furious that his father had impregnated his stepsister. Errol Musk, an engineer, owned a small percentage of an emerald mine and had a couple of good years before the mine went bust and wiped out his investment. But by many accounts, the issues at the Tesla factory go beyond the need for a thick skin, New York Times reported. However, $800 was probably pocket change for the family, judging by what Musk's father told the site. He continued: He grabbed some weapons, as you could see on the cameras there were some intruders that were coming over the walls, and they were also armed. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. He did the investment after selling a plane for about 80 000. 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 headline of the story read, "Elon Musk Tells Me His Secret Of Success (Hint: It Ain't About The Money).". I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack & suitcase of books. ---. 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 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. "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." Address: Regus Business Centre 1st Floor, Block B, North Park, Black River Park, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa Postal: Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican, PO Box 44354, Claremont, 7735, South Africa, United Kingdom Blue Sky Publications Ltd Company Registration Number: 04683692. I'm going to wait until he comes to his senses. Journalism strengthens democracy. [15][16] At the time of their marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout was only four years old and lived together with them. 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. Business Insider South Africa, 22 Feb. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.co.za/elon-musk-sells-the-family-emeralds-in-new-york-2018-2. [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. Elon also denied that Errol invested in the company. The story made no further mention of the mine. Meanwhile, Musk's defenders often say that the mogul has denied this story, though that is not precisely true either. [11] The family lived in Pretoria,[10][12] where Maye worked as a dietician and a model. Fortier, Alexander. The interview is no longer available on the Forbes website. 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. In 2018, Errol Musk interviewed Business Insider South Africa, where he told a story about bartering his way into partial ownership of an emerald mine in Zambia. Musk's father, Errol, an engineer, married Maye when she was 22, and Musk was born shortly . Went to Queens Univ with scholarship & debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton & Stanford. More answers and details are available in Arnold's article. One of their homes was in Waterkloof, a leafy suburb of Pretoria that was popular with foreign diplomats. This is why people are switching to @TheBabylonBee! Musk wrote. 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. 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.". ", 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. Other companies started by Musk include Neuralink, which is working on developing implantable brainmachine interfaces. There is a more nuanced conversation to be had about how Elon Musk specifically and South Africas white population in general benefitted from apartheid. D'Innocenzio, Anne. But I didnt really understand at the time what kind of person he was. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. @spylinen tweeted, The mine was in Zambia, which became independent of the UK in 1964. Jana was 4 years old when Errol married her mother, Heide Bezuidenhout though he claims that he didn't consider Jana his stepdaughter, as she primarily grew up separate from the Musks. So we went to this guy's prefab and he opened his safe and there was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money, he said. He was such a terrible human being. Elon was a witness to this, bullets flying around, Cattrell further claimed. 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. All the Musk siblings did well, Forbes reported. Get down!'. Smart Policies are as low as $30 a month, No Medical Exam Required He has also fathered two children, a son and a daughter, with his stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout. Errol told BI that he was flying from his home in South Africa to the U.K. to sell the plane he was on, with a young Elon in tow. Errol was born in South Africa to a British mother and a South African father. Nothing, nothing. According to the Twitter flag, Musk claimed in 2014 to Forbes that he had an emerald mine in Zambia. By Michael Hein 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. 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.. ", He grew up in South Africa and had the good fortune of doing so in an upper-middle-class home. On May 22, 2020, Bloomberg.com published an interview with Elon, which was penned by Ashlee Vance. ---. Copyright 2023 Market Realist. ", She added, "He was very rich, but he made sure I had nothing. "'His Family Stole an Emerald Mine.'" I said, Oh, all right. The New York Times, 5 May 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/world/africa/elon-musk-south-africa.html. Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance 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. "I Talked to Elon Musk about Journalism and the Blood Emeralds Story." What Happened: Musk's comments came on a Twitter. "I was active in opposing the National Party and their apartheid," he said in the post." Errols grandmother was Canadas first chiropractor, while Errols own mom and dad were the first two people to fly from South Africa to Australia in a single-engine airplane, according to Forbes magazine. As well as providing links, people started commenting Musk's own words back at him under his tweet. You have no idea. "I screwed up the marriage, I was totally responsible. You have no idea. 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. SASSA: Here are your March 2023 grant payment dates. 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. In Errol's case, we sent a message to his Facebook profile. He also sent a link to another interview he did with Elon in 2016. I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day. 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. In 2019, a Twitter user claimed that Musk's father Errol owned an emerald mine. "I said, 'Oh, all right'. However, both Elon and . In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane. 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. Where is this bs coming from?" There was a shooting in the living room, and I guess his father shot them dead. Arnold, Jeremy. 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. In 1972, Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council in his native South Africa. Soon after Elon left for Canada, his mother, Maye, moved there too, along with Elons brother, Kimbal, and sister, Tosca. Bridges to Italy tweeted, Yeah, hes not that bright, just like the guy who started this thread. Offers may be subject to change without notice. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. "Is It True That Elon Musk's Family Got Their Wealth from Apartheid Emerald Mining?" 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. 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. "There was just stacks of money and he paid me out, 80,000, it was a huge amount of money." Ive tried everything. 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. Worked on my Moms cousins farm in Saskatchewan & a lumber mill in Vancouver. He seemed very sad and lonely by himself. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com, Image Via PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images. 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. 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. "Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine." For example, on Dec. 28, 2019, hetweetedthat his father "didn't own an emerald mine" and that he (Elon) had worked his way through college, ending up with around $100,000 in student debt. 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.. Esquire, 5 June 2015, https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35508/elon-musk-college-years-canada-u-penn/. 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 17, Musk decided to leave home, heading first to Canada and then the U.S. for university. 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. 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. He is the father of business magnate and billionaire Elon Musk, restaurateur Kimbal Musk, and filmmaker Tosca Musk. Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. We were very wealthy. 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. 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. [11][5] Maye has stated that Errol beat her. His parents divorced. He was bullied at school. Market Realist is a registered trademark. "Exploring the Otherworldly Ambitions of Elon Musk." 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 funding we raised for our first company came from a small group of random angel investors in Silicon Valley. Note: Reporting from Esquire.com said that Elon moved from South Africa to Canada in 1988. Father and son have a complicated history. Elon and other family members have opened up about years of living in debt after they left South Africa. "We went to this guy's prefab [home] and he opened his safe," Errol said. 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. This material may not be reproduced without permission. 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. His net worth is. All Rights Reserved. Elon Musk isn't innovative. 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. 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. We've received your submission. "Who Is Elon Musk's Estranged Father? She won't speak to me or engage me if we're in the same room which we have been often.". Britannica.com, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zip2. Elon Musk has a wild story!" he captioned it. de Wet, Phillip. 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. 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. ERROL IS A RETIRED SOUTH AFRICAN ENGINEER. This is not true," Elon told Rolling Stone in 2017. He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.". Rumor is Errol Musk owned an emerald mine. Errol Musk, the familys patriarch, is in the news after confirming he fathered a second secret love child with his stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, 35. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. 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 billionaire, who was born in South Africa, took to. If I could have another child I would. Vance wrote, "For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. And then thered still be all these notes sticking out, and wed sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.. Move over, Elon theres another Musk hitting the headlines. [22] He is estranged from his son Elon. 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. Image via Instagram @mayemusk. "Like every abused woman, I was embarrassed, and I knew I had made a mistake, you know? 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. He has a net worth of $2 million and is living quite comfortably. Wanderlust ran on both sides of the family. Errol and Heide had two children of their own, but he also helped raise Jana. The Onion, a satirical publication, shared. On July 28, 2014, Forbes.com published an interview with Elon Musk, which was conducted by Jim Clash. So we had this planeload of contraband and an overdue passport from another person. 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. "Elon Musk's family owns an emerald mine" was corrected to "Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine." "Zip2." The Musk name might be one of the most recognizable on the planet, but little is known about its patriarch, Errol Musk. How much of a Momentum Proteas Womens cricket fan are you? Errol admitted to having affairs, but his ex-wife, now a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, said the problems in their marriage extended beyond infidelity, alleging that Errol was abusive. "In my experience, there is nothing you can do," he added. He was such a terrible human being, Musk told the magazine. In addition, they offered Errol a chance to buy partial ownership of a Zambian emerald mine. I wish. Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. Chromatica Warrior @DebbieTweeted Can he be held responsible for his dads ethics tho? The Daily Mail has reported that Errol was a multimillionaire before the age of 30. Although Musk said that his father was brilliant at engineering in the Rolling Stone interview, thats where the praise ended. Musk's defenders have also pointed out that Errol's alleged trade took place in the mid-1980s, at which point Zambia was independent. In 2017, family members were left stunned when Jana became pregnant with Errols baby. We did not receive a response from Forbes PR. 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. Errol made money by consulting and developing properties, Forbes reported. 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 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. In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. Musk replied, linking to Jeremy Arnolds article, which gave Musks side of the story. While in Djibouti, he and his co-pilot sold their plane to some Italian nationals. "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," he recalled to Business Insider. "He didn't 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. The entire episode started when the satirical publication The Onion published a piece on the wealthiest person in each American state. 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. 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. In South Africa, my father had a private plane we'd fly in incredibly dangerous weather and barely make it back. As a child, Elon had a close relationship with his father and grew up prosperous in Pretoria. Errol built his wealth as a prominent electromechanical engineer and entrepreneur in South Africa, reports The South African. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. This is a pretty awful lie. Errol was a successful consulting engineer, and also owned an emerald mine in Zambia. Errol told Business Insider South Africa that he co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia. 2021, https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/i-talked-to-elon-musk-about-journalism. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. I wish. He also added, "'Self-made billionaires' are a myth."