At 76, Errol Musk lives in the coastal town of Lanbebaan, near Cape Town.
Elon Musk knows how to control the news, but despite the intense media attention that arouses the richest man in the world, the entrepreneur’s beginnings in apartheid South Africa are still uncertain for many.
In the midst of a debate over a possible Twitter purchase, his father Errol Musk said this raised his sons Elon and Kimbal with austerity, like good “South African boys”, infusing them from an early age with the rigor and discipline he had learned in the army.
“I was a strict father. My word was law”he says, assuring him Elon’s ambition fed on this upbringing with a deliberately macho touch.
“It was our way of being. We strive to give the best of ourselves,” confides this 76-year-old man with a weathered face, clear forehead and steely gaze at his home in the coastal town of Lanbebaan, near in Cape Town.
A young musk with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Elon Musk was born in Pretoria on June 28, 1971, son of this engineer and real estate developer and Maye, a Canadian model.
Like many other young people of his generation, he would end up leaving South Africa to avoid military service at the height of apartheid.
Before leaving the country, he grew up mainly with his father after his parents divorced. At the age of nine, “I saw him get off the station radiant one morning, he had taken a night train alone” after he left his mother’s house, explains Errol.
elon often He spoke of a sad childhood. And he distanced himself from his father when he had a son in 2017 with his ex-wife’s daughter, 42 years his junior.
“This didn’t seem right to Elon. I take life as it comes,” explains the father, ensuring that after this breaking point their relationship has improved.
“We grow fond of each other. I always think about how it was with my father. He was a soldier, we didn’t talk much. At Sunday lunch I said ‘good morning dad’ and he would go off to do his crossword puzzle.”
The controversies of the entrepreneur Tesla and SpaceX, especially on Twitter, have become routine. But Errol supports it his son was always weird.
“He was a cunning and reckless young man who interfered in adult conversations. Already at the age of four he was listening to stories of politics and business,” says his father.
The prediction of Elon Musk in his childhood
Errol Musk next to the portraits of his children.
“One day Elon announced that when he grew up he would become a millionaire”remembers his father. Laughing, with a glass and a cigarette in hand, an adult replied that “the little one” might be disappointed.
The South African press has assured that the tycoon donated one million rand (€ 60,000 or $ 64,000) in the center in exchange for never referring to him in their promotional material.
His dealings with Musk were carried out through his assistant. It is the same method that the entrepreneur uses with his father Errol.
Communication with Musk is strictly controlled, with the exception of Twitter, where he expresses himself generously. However, Errol describes him as “the kindest” of his children.
During the interview with the AFP, the father assures that he received an email from Elon proposing pay for a recent eye operation“another example of his son’s generosity,” according to him.
“Elon is very thoughtful. He really means that when he says he wants to save humanity. It’s not a slogan,” he says.
The last time she saw her famous son, who currently lives in Texas, was six years ago, on her 70th birthday.
“I’m a South African, I don’t care about my birthday, but it was very nice,” he says. Unbeknownst to her, Elon has invited famous friends, including several Hollywood actresses, to Cape Town.
During that meal, they talked about Donald Trump. “So I said, ‘Yes, I support Trump,'” recalls Errol. “He is a winner. Like me, Elon and Kimbal”, the other he son of him.
With information from agencies.
SL
Source: Clarin
