THE CONARD COURANT
Est. 1957
How Elon Musk Benefited From the Apartheid Government in South Africa
By Emma Callahan
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was raised in great wealth under South Africa’s Apartheid government that legalized segregation and called for white domination. On December 18th, 2023 Musk Posted "DEI must die" on X, formally known as Twitter. As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it does not come as a shock today that Musk is using his new position to target all forms of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). As someone who directly benefited from a system of racial segregation, his criticism of DEI, which is a framework that promotes the inclusion and fair treatment of people who have been historically underrepresented and discriminated against, is, well, disappointing.
Elon Musk's Family ties to South Africa began with his maternal grandfather's decision to emigrate to South Africa from Canada in the 1950s. Africa’s Apartheid system was established two years prior which intensified discrimination laws already present in South Africa. This system of government came across as incredibly attractive to Joshua Haldeman, Musk's Grandfather. In Canada, Haldeman was part of the U.S. movement called Technocracy Incorporated. This movement was born in the 1930s and called for the destruction of democratic governments in both the US and Canada. The movement was destroyed, however, due to Its fascist undertones and support for Nazism in the wake of Canada joining the Allied forces in World War II. Therefore, South Africa aligned seamlessly with the political and social attitudes Haldeman was banned from pursuing in Canada. Haldmen however, was not incredibly prosperous. It was Musk's Father, Errol Musk, who accumulated much wealth from the Apartheid system.
Musk’s father accumulated his wealth primarily from investments in emerald mines in South Africa. In fact, many white South Africans accumulated their wealth from land ownership. Although white South Africans comprised only 17% of the population they were granted 87 % of the land. With such wealth, Musk lived what can be called a neocolonial lifestyle. While black South Africans had little access to education due to discriminatory policies like the Bantu Education Act, which transferred control of "native" education to the government, Musk, like other white South Africans, was given a fine education. He attended Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa, which is named one of the top institutions in the country.
Musk left South Africa in 1988, just as the Apartheid system began to crumble. He emigrated to Canada and started his ventures as a businessman. Today, Musk shows loyalty to his South African roots in advocating for the country's white minority. This February, under Musk's influence, Trump has suspended aid to South Africa and offered refugee status to white South Africans, as a result of South Africa’s “discriminatory” practices against the white minority. Musk has never publicly acknowledged the privilege he received growing up as a white South African during the Apartheid system. Instead, as the wealthiest man on earth, Musk uses his power and privilege to destroy all programs designed to provide equal opportunity for those who were historically underrepresented and oppressed. In every system of law, Musk has continued to be and will always be the oppressor.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/world/africa/elon-musk-south-africa.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/2/11/elon_musk_was_raised_under_racist