Clearly, Elon Musk doesn't like being mocked. Errol and Elons feud has reportedly been exacerbated by the patriarchs eyebrow-raising relationships. He didnt own an emerald mine, and I worked my way through college, ending up [around] $100,000 in student debt, Elon tweeted. He didnt own an emerald mine & I worked my way through college, ending up ~$100k in student debt. ". "Elon Musk: The College Years." He can't have what he wants and now I am apparently an evil monster.". He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. 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.. [3][4], Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. Errol himself has an adventurous streak and is an avid sailor and pilot. Address: Riverbank House, 1 Putney Bridge Approach, London, SW6 4TJ. I can't see any reason not to. 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.". 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. 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. Elon was said to be particularly furious that his father had impregnated his stepsister. The Buffalo News via San Jose Mercury News via Newspapers.com, 20 Apr. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He also sent a link to another interview he did with Elon in 2016. Earlier in this story, we referenced a July 3, 2020, tweet from Elon that mentioned Vance's interview. 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. 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. Arnold, Jeremy. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Or they'd take the plane to Lake Tanganyika [in Zambia], where Errol had a stake in an emerald mine. In an interview with Rolling Stone, during which he reportedly cried, Elon called his father "a terrible human being" and "evil. 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. [10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. We contacted Elon publicly on Twitter. Imgur, 5 Dec. 2019, https://imgur.com/SHGhIY2. In the interview, Musk's father explained that he bought his share of the emerald mine after selling a plane. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire. It was also shared on Reddit.com. However, Errol also told the outlet that life in apartheid South Africa was ultimately "better" and "safer" than it is today. Errol and Jana welcomed a son, Elliot "Rushi" Rush, in 2017 and a daughter in 2019. [1] His father was a South African veteran of World War II and his mother was British. Theyd seen I was sleeping in one morning, and they said, Oh lets just try, lets go.. "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. His net worth is. He told me over and over that I was stupid, ugly, boring. 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. In 2019, a Twitter user claimed that Musk's father Errol owned an emerald mine. Elon Musk was highlighted as the wealthiest resident of Texas, Americas second-biggest state. 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). 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. ", Musk tackled it on Twitter as the story circulated, but his denials do not explicitly contradict his father's tale of the bizarre airplane-emerald mine trade. Errol also added that his children were keenly aware of the country's government-sanctioned racial segregation. He is the father of business magnate and billionaire Elon Musk, restaurateur Kimbal Musk, and filmmaker Tosca Musk. He added that Elon left the country as "a clear indication of his willingness to not support the political suppression in the country. The funding we raised for our first company came from a small group of random angel investors in Silicon Valley. Clash, Jim. Below we have provided a small sampling of the many different ways the rumor has been framed in past years. Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. 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. 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. 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. Errol employed a cutter in Johannesburg and sold the stones wherever his travels as an engineer or family holidays took him. Vance, Ashlee. 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 and Kimbal allegedly sold 2 emeralds: one worth $800 and another worth $1200. Shame on you, Onion. ---. His children were reportedly influenced by his liberal political views. "The Man Who's Revolutionizing The Future Of Driving -- And The Universe." Forbes, 1 Oct. 2016, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2016/10/01/can-elon-musk-really-get-us-to-mars-within-10-years/. On March 25, 2021, Elon Musktweetedthat the emerald mine inheritance rumor was false, and that he had arrived by himself in Canada in 1989 "with ~CA$2,500." 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. "So I became a half-owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years," Errol said. 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.. "Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done It's so terrible, you can't believe it. "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. Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams. But that's more or less where the good fortune ended. In Errol's case, we sent a message to his Facebook profile. On Feb. 23, 2018, Business Insider SA published a story with the headline, "'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." It is still hard to discern whether this story is true and what conclusions can be drawn. "She wasn't planned," Errol said of his youngest child. de Wet, Phillip. ---. 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. South Africa Blue Sky Publications (Pty) Ltd T/A TheSouthAfrican Number: 2005/028472/07. Their plane got diverted, which led to a chance meeting with Italians who wanted to buy the plane in cash. 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. In the interview, the Tesla owner briefly mentioned that his father had a share in an emerald mine in Zambia. They still dont like it. We were very wealthy. 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. Jump to Main content Search Account Menu icon A vertical stack of three evenly spaced horizontal. Their half-sister.. FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ERROL MUSK 1. The same story appeared to have also been published the day before with the headline, "A teenage Elon Musk once casually sold his father's emeralds to Tiffany & Co. while his dad was sleeping. Hes the son of Maye Musk, a model and dietitian from Canada, and Errol Musk, a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, and sailor. "They were confronted by it every day," he said. Elon Musk isn't innovative. But I didnt really understand at the time what kind of person he was. Wayback Machine. For 14 free days, you can have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features. Journalism strengthens democracy. 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. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is aself-made billionaire." "I was active in opposing the National Party and their apartheid," he said in the post." "Everybody I knew called him 'the Pig' because he treated me so badly in public. "Tesla, Inc."Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tesla-Motors. "Elon Musk Is the Hero America Deserves." We've received your submission. . I couldnt even afford a 2nd PC at Zip2, so programmed at night & website only worked during day.. 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. 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. It didn't work out too well in the end," he said. [20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. [Jana] stayed here for about 18 months after Rushi was born. For the state of Texas, The Onion printed, "Elon Musk: Apartheid.". Note: Some of the tweets that promoted the rumor said that Elon did not found Tesla, which was true. AskMen, 2 Jan. 2015, https://www.askmen.com/entertainment/right-stuff/elon-musk-interview.html. r/EnoughMuskSpam via Reddit.com, 18 Dec. 2021, https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/rj689s/elon_musk_and_the_emerald_mine/. 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.. [10] She gave birth to three children; Elon Reeve Musk born on 28 June 1971, Kimbal Reeve Musk born on 20 September 1972, and Tosca Musk born on 20 July 1974. You could tell by the way that he told the story. 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. 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. It was a lucrative decision. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years.. Sager, Jessica. In the past, the Tesla CEO hasrespondedseveral times on Twitter about the emerald mine rumors. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. "Bezos' Comments on Workers after Spaceflight Draws Rebuke." Its obvious why Musk would want to distance himself from apartheid in every possible way. 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.. It was not a good idea.. He was bullied at school. Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa. https://web.archive.org/. The Twitter account no longer exists. He once tweeted he arrived in 1989, not 1988, however. The story included reporting of Elon's denials that the emerald mine had provided any seed money for the wealth he would later accumulate. 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. The Musk name might be one of the most recognizable on the planet, but little is known about its patriarch, Errol Musk. 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.