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Errol Musk
South African politician and businessman (born 1946) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Errol Graham Musk (born 25 May 1946) is a South African businessman, politician, and the patriarch of the Musk family.[2] He was a member of Pretoria City Council from 1972 to 1983, and was a member of the Progressive Federal Party from 1980 to 1983 before resigning over political disagreements. As a businessman, he worked as a mechanical engineering consultant, developed properties, and invested in various ventures including emerald trading.
Musk married Maye Haldeman in 1970, and they had three children: Elon, Kimbal and Tosca. Haldeman divorced him in 1979, saying he was abusive. He has since had two other marriages and four other children. His son Elon, who is the wealthiest person in the world, has called him a "terrible human being."[3]
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Early life
Errol Graham Musk was born on 25 May, 1946 in Pretoria, in the Transvaal province of the Union of South Africa to parents, Walter Henry James Musk and Cora Amelia Musk (née Robinson). His father was a South African of English descent and his mother was English.
Musk attended Clapham High School in Queenswood, where he began a relationship with Maye Haldeman,[1] whom he married in 1970.[4] The family lived in Pretoria, where Maye worked as a dietitian and a model.[1] Their first child, Elon Reeve Musk, was born on 28 June 1971, named after Maye's grandfather J. Elon Haldeman, with Reeve being her maternal grandmother's maiden name.[1][2]
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Career
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On 9 March 1972, Musk was elected as an independent to represent Sunnyside on the Pretoria City Council.[5][4][6][7] In 1980[8] he became a member of the Progressive Federal Party, the new official opposition formed in 1977, and ran as their Sunnyside nominee in the 1981 election.[4][9] In 1983 his resignation from the PFP over its stance towards the constitutional referendum was front-page news for the ruling National Party's organ Die Burger, which portrayed the opposition as divided.[9][10] Musk rebelled against the PFP's call for rejecting the new constitution and cited his agreement with the New Republic Party's position that the Tricameral Parliament was a step in the right direction.[8]
Musk studied electromechanics at the University of Pretoria, worked as an electrical and mechanical engineering consultant, and developed properties,[2] especially retail and office property development. His lucrative engineering business took on "large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base." He also owned an auto parts store, at least half a share in an emerald mine, and even "one of the biggest houses in Pretoria."[11] His ex-wife Maye's book recalls that at the time of their divorce in 1979, he owned two homes, a yacht, a plane, five luxury cars, and a truck.[12]
In the early 1980s, Errol built a lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve to rent to tourists.[7]
In 1986, he acquired rights to the output of three Zambian emerald mines, though he did not own the mines themselves. In interviews with Walter Isaacson he explained, "If you registered it, you would wind up with nothing, because the Blacks would take everything from you",[7] He later referred to his wealth during Elon's teen years in an interview with Business Insider South Africa, saying he had "so much money we couldn't even close our safe" and mentioned his emerald dealings.[13][14] Snopes confirmed that at some point he owned "a stake in an emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia."[15] He once described his emerald mine as an "under the table" operation.[16]
According to the 2015 biography of Elon Musk, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, in 1995 Errol Musk gave US$28,000 to Elon and Kimbal as they were starting up the software company Zip2.[17] Elon has denied receiving the money from his father.[17] In 1998, Errol Musk shot and killed three armed intruders at one of his properties in Johannesburg.[18]
In a January 2025 video interview, Errol Musk stated that governance in South Africa has deteriorated.[19]
In January 2025, Errol endorsed a meme coin called "Musk It" and revealed that he planned to raise $200 million for the Musk Institute via this project.[20][21]
In February 2025, Musk arranged a phone call between his son Elon and the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, during which the two discussed the impact of Donald Trump's policies on South Africa.[22] In April 2025 Musk praised Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in an interview with BBC News Russian. He said, "it would be foolish not to admire Putin." He also implied Russia was not responsible for the war in Ukraine, and claimed his entire family supported Putin.[23]
In June 2025, Errol Musk visited the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, India, with his daughter Alexandra, calling it “one of the best things I’ve ever done.” He was also named Global Advisor to the Indian company Servotech Power Systems and took part in green energy initiatives during his visit.[24][25] Also in June 2025, Musk participated as a speaker at the Forum of the Future 2050 in Moscow, a conference organised by the far-right television channel Tsargrad and its chairman Konstantin Malofeev; the guests also included minister Sergey Lavrov, economist Jeffrey Sachs and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.[26][27]
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Family life
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In 1979, Musk and his wife Maye divorced.[1][28] In her memoir, Maye characterized her marriage as abusive and alleged Errol had been violent.[29] She recounts a time during their divorce when she sought refuge at a neighbour's home after Errol showed up with a knife looking for her.[12] After the divorce, Musk repeatedly sued his ex-wife for custody of their children.[12] He was briefly married to a woman named Sue.[12]
In the early 1990s, Errol, then aged 45, married Heide Bezuidenhout, a 25-year-old he described as "one of the best-looking women I've ever seen in my life."[30] He had two daughters with Bezuidenhout.[31]
In March 2018, it was reported that Musk had fathered a child with his adult step-daughter, Heide's daughter Jana Bezuidenhout.[31][32] In July 2022 he gave an interview to the tabloid newspaper The Sun, announcing that he and Bezuidenhout had another child.[33][34] Musk has a total of seven children, according to People magazine in November 2022.[13] He once commented, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce."[35]
Opinions about Elon
In 2022, Musk stated he was "not proud" of Elon.[36] In 2024, he defended Elon after the latter said that the United Kingdom was heading towards a civil war.[37] In January 2025, he defended his son's remarks but also urged people to ignore them.[38]
References
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