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Errol Musk
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946 |
| Occupation(s) | Engineer, politician, businessman |
| Office | Pretoria city councilman |
| Term | 1972-1983 |
| Political party | Progressive Federal Party (resigned 1983) |
| Spouse(s) |
(m. 1970; div. 1979)Sue Musk (divorced)Heide Bezuidenhout
(m. 1992; div. 2004) |
| Partner | Jana Bezuidenhout |
| Children | 7 Three with Maye: Elon, Kimbal, Tosca; Two with Heidi, Two with Jana |
| Parents |
|
Errol Musk is a retired South African engineer, politician, and businessman. Beginning in the 2010s, Musk was featured in media documenting his relationships with family including his wives, children, and former stepdaughter.
Errol Musk was born in South Africa.[1] His mother, Cora Amelia, was British and his father Walter Henry James Musk was a South African army sergeant.[1][2]
He attended Clapham High School, where he dated Maye Haldeman.[3] The pair married in 1970.[4]: 44 The family lived in Pretoria, where Maye worked as a dietician and a model.[3] Their first child, Elon Reeve Musk, was born in 1971, named after his wife's grandfather J. Elon Haldeman with Reeve from her maternal grandmother's maiden name.[3][1]
On 9 March 1972, Musk was elected as an independent to represent Sunnyside on the Pretoria City Council.[5][4]: 52 [6][7]
He became a member of the recently-formed Progressive Federal Party and ran as their nominee in the 1981 election.[4]: 52 [8]: 225, fn 119 In 1983, his resignation from the party amid divisions over a constitutional referendum was front page news.[8]: 225, fn 119 [9]
Musk studied electromechanical engineering at the University of Pretoria, worked as an electrical and mechanical engineering consultant and developed properties.[1] He specialised in retail and office property development.[2]: 27 Musk owned "one of the biggest houses in Pretoria" thanks to his lucrative engineering business which took on "large projects such as office buildings, retail complexes, residential subdivisions, and an air force base."[2] Musk also owned an auto parts store.[10] In 1979, Musk and wife Maye divorced .[3][11] Maye's book recalls that at the time of the divorce, he owned two homes, a yacht, a plane, five luxury cars, and a truck.[12] A maid cooked dinners.[13]
Maye recounts a time during their divorce when she sought refuge at a neighbor'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] Musk was briefly married to a wife, Sue.[12]
In the early 1980s, Musk built a lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve to rent to tourists.[7]: ch. 3 In 1986, Musk acquired the output of three Zambian emerald mines, though he could not acquire the actual mines themselves. In interviews with Walter Issacson, Musk explained: "If you registered it, you would wind up with nothing, because the Blacks would take everything from you".[7]: ch. 1
In the 21st century, the former South African politician achieved notoriety for his relationships to ex-wife supermodel Maye Musk, his sons including businessman Elon Musk and restaurateur Kimbal Musk, his daughter filmmaker Tosca Musk, and his step-daughter turned partner Jana Bezuidenhout.
In 2014, Musk gave an interview to American media about his son Elon.[14] In 2017, Musk was interviewed by Neil StraussofRolling Stone for a profile of Elon titled "The Architect of Tomorrow".[15] In that piece Errol recalled that he had once shot and killed "three out of five or six armed people" who had broken into his home in self-defense.[15][16] Elon described his father Errol as a "terrible human being", adding: "Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done."[15]
In March 2018, it was reported that Musk had fathered a child with his adult stepchild. In the early 1990s, Musk, then aged 45, had married Heide Bezuidenhout, a 25-year old he described as "one of the best looking women I’ve ever seen in my life".[17] They had two children.[18] His partner, Jana Bezuidenhout, had been his stepdaughter from that marriage and had been four years old at the time Musk married her mother and became her step-father.[18][19]
In February 2018, Musk made headlines when he referred to his wealth during Elon's teen years in an interview with Business Insider South Africa. Musk described having "so much money we couldn't even close our safe" and mentioned his emerald dealings.[20][21] Snopes confirmed that Errol "at some point owned "a stake in an emerald mine" near Lake Tanganyika in Zambia".[22]
In 2019, Musk's ex-wife Maye published her memoir, A Woman Makes a Plan, a book in which she characterized her marriage as abusive and alleged Errol had been violent.[23][12]
In July 2022, Musk gave an interview to the tabloid newspaper The Sun, announcing that he and Jana Bezuidenhout had had another child.[24][25] Musk has a total of seven children, according to People magazine in November 2022.[20] On 1 August 2022, Musk appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, an Australian radio show and made headlines for saying he was "not proud" of his son.[26]
In April 2023, Musk described his emerald mine as an "under the table" operation.[27] Musk was interviewed by author Walter Isaacson for his 2023 biography of Musk's son Elon, which discussed Errol Musk at length.[28] In June 2024, he gave an interview to The Sun tabloid in which he claimed Elon had upgraded his home security system.[29]
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