Errol Musk (born 1946) is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer who was once a co-owner of a

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

n emerald mine near

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. T ...

. He is the father of business magnate and billionaire

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...

, restaurateur

Kimbal Musk Kimbal Reeve Musk (born 20 September 1972) is a South African restaurateur, chef, and entrepreneur. He owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group, a collection of "community" restaurants located in Colorado, Chicago, and Indianapolis. He is the co-fo ...

, and filmmaker

Tosca Musk Tosca Musk (born July 20, 1974) is a South African filmmaker. She is an executive producer and director of feature films, television programs, and web content. Her work includes K. Bromberg's ''Driven'', Rachel van Dyken's ''Matchmaker's Playbook ...

. He was married to Maye Musk and also to Heide Bezuidenhout, and has two children with Bezuidenhout's daughter Jana Bezuidenhout.

Early life and education

Errol Musk was born in 1946 in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

, to Walter Henry James Musk and Cora Amelia Robinson. His father was a South African veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and his mother was British. His grandmother was the first chiropractor in Canada. He attended

Clapham High School Clapham High School is a public, English-speaking high school in Queenswood, Pretoria, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The school moved out of central Pretoria to the present facilities in Queenswood, beginning of 1955, and has approxima ...

and later attended University of Pretoria where received a degree in Electromechanical engineering.

Career and investments

Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early. In 1969, he became a 50% owner of an emerald mine on

,Anna Crowley Redding,(2019). ''Elon Musk: A Mission to Save the World''. United States: Feiwel & Friends. that he bought for £40,000, funded by selling an airplane for £80,000. In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk boasted that as a result of the emerald mine "we had so much money we couldn't even close our safe." In 1972, he was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party, with the Musk children reportedly sharing their father's dislike of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. Errol Musk's claims that he invested in Elon Musk's software company Zip2 have been rejected by Elon Musk.

Personal life

Musk met Maye Haldeman when he was 11 years old and they were childhood friends before marrying in 1970.''Abhishek Kumar, A COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF ELON MUSK''. (2021). (n.p.): Prabhat Prakashan. She gave birth to 3 children; Elon Reeve Musk born on June 28, 1971, Kimbal Reeve Musk born on September 20, 1972, and Tosca Musk born on July 20, 1974. The family lived in

, where Maye worked as a dietician and a model. Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity. After engaging in extra-marital affairs, Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, and both sons moved in with their father. Musk was married to Heide Bezuidenhout for eighteen years and helped her raise her young daughter Jana Bezuidenhout, a child from a previous relationship. At the time of their marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout was only four years old and lived together with them. Later in life, after splitting from Heide Bezuidenhout, he fathered two children with her daughter (his former step-daughter) Jana Bezuidenhout; a son born in 2017 and a daughter born in 2019. Musk described the first child as unplanned. At the time of their daughter's birth, according to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old. As of 2022, Musk and Jana Bezuidenhout were no longer living together. Musk has a total of seven children and as of 2022 lives in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, South Africa. He is estranged from his son Elon. In a 2017 ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' interview, Musk claimed to have shot and killed seven burglars who forced their way into his Johannesburg home after the intruders opened fire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musk, Errol Living people South African mining businesspeople South African sailors South African engineers South African businesspeople South African people of British descent People from Pretoria Musk family 1946 births People from Johannesburg

Early life and education

Career and investments

Personal life

See also

References