Errol Musk, the father of Elon Musk, has defended his son’s character, insisting that Elon is not racist. In an interview with the Washington Post, Errol, 79, explained that his children, including Elon, grew up around “several Black servants” who were also their friends, which he believes proves that Elon isn’t racist.
“We had several black servants who were their friends,” Errol told the newspaper.
Errol was responding to questions about his son’s controversial stance on workplace diversity programs. Despite growing up during apartheid in South Africa, a time of strict racial segregation, Errol claimed that his children were uninterested in the political issues of the time.
He also described South Africa during his children’s youth as a “well-run, law-abiding country with virtually no crime at all,” expressing nostalgia for the past.
Errol further discussed his own business dealings, mentioning how he imported emeralds from an unregistered mine in Zambia. He said this helped sustain him and his family during the end of apartheid.
While Elon Musk has distanced himself from the emerald mine story, he previously spoke about his father’s involvement in the mine. In 2021, when his father’s emerald mining business came under scrutiny, Elon denied that the mine ever existed, claiming he arrived in Canada in 1989 with only $2,500 and paid his way through college on his own.
However, biographer Walter Isaacson confirmed that while Errol Musk didn’t own the mine, he did import emeralds from it. Errol himself explained that he chose to import from the unregistered mine because he feared that without doing so, “the Blacks would take everything from you.”
Elon’s childhood friend, Rudolph Pienaar, also shared his thoughts, saying that Elon grew up in a “bubble of entitlement” and likely didn’t understand the struggles of racial discrimination. He added that Elon’s current life reflects how it was under apartheid — privileged and surrounded by a system that catered to him.
Elon has faced criticism in recent years, especially after his 2022 acquisition of Twitter. His policies have been blamed for allowing harmful content to flourish on the platform, including pro-Nazi messages. He has also faced accusations of aligning with far-right ideologies, which intensified after he appeared to give a salute similar to a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s second-term inauguration celebration. Elon responded to these accusations on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), using puns based on Nazi figures to downplay the controversy.
