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Elon Musk / Errol Musk (father)

I have been asked by friends to read your article on Elon Musk.

There are some substantial errors in this article.

The article seems to suggest that Elon 'swam' from South Africa to North America when he was 17 (a few days before his 18th birthday). Without listing the errors, which you can read, Elon spent his entire youth with me, not "mostly". His mother was absent.

Elon's ability to program came from me acceding to his pleas when he was only 12, and buying him in 1982 the first IBM XTA Personal Computer to arrive in South Africa. The computer cost as much as a Mercedes motor car. I did this willingly and because I saw his aptitude for computing. I hold both FORTRAN and COBOL diplomas in programming from IBM.

He was never "bullied at school". Had this occurred I would have seen to it immediately. The fact is, Elon (then 13) called one of his classmates, a smaller boy from a poor home and a single mother, a name. Some people are very sensitive about this kind of thing. When this boy saw his chance he pushed Elon down a flight of concrete stairs. At the bottom, Elon being severely stunned, the boy proceeded to pommel Elon's face. On learning the facts I could take no action against the boy that pushed Elon. When Elon recovered I immediately removed him from that school and enrolled him in a better school in another city, Pretoria. Because of zoning requirements this required that I buy a house in Pretoria, in the best suburb, which I did. When he matriculated, I offered Elon the opportunity to go to any university in South Africa. He chose Pretoria University, my alma mater. It is a good university and a world leader in many fields, particularly tropical diseases and veterinary science.

There was also never any talk whatsoever about avoiding military service, although we were all opposed to Apartheid.

When I saw he was very unhappy at Pretoria University, I was the one who suggested he go to study in North America, to which he reacted very positively, and I was the only one capable of doing this for him. Elon, and his brother and sister, had been to virtually all the countries in the world with me by that time, and several times to the USA and Canada. I was confident that he had learned enough from me, although only 17, nearly 18, so I sent him to the US Consulate to get information on universities in the USA from my friend the US Ambassador. Other parents would have been horrified, but I was confident that he could do it. He left South Africa ten days later on a flexible return ticket purchased by me and with sufficient funds from me for several months.

Elon subsequently enrolled at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, on a government loan. In the meantime I provided him and his brother Kimbal (who I had also sent to Canada) and his sister Tosca, who had moved to Canada with her mother, all the funds I would have used to send them to university in South Africa.

In 1991 Elon, then only 20, applied to the Canadian Government for me to emigrate to Canada, using his own funds, which still brings me to tears. I received permission as a Landed Immigrant, sponsored by E. R Musk (son). The Landed Immigrant document is available for perusal, signed by Elon. I did not go there as I found Canada to be a somewhat dull place compared to Africa, much to Elon's disappointment, and I am sorry for this.

I don't mind being called "a terrible person". It's better than fake accolades from one's children. My task as a father was not to be a 'pal', but a father. I feel I succeeded at that.

I later provided funds to start Zip 2. This entailed the very difficult task of extracting funds at any cost from an extremely turbulent and violent South Africa at the time, and sending such funds illegally through Israel, paying a large premium for doing so.

Responses here.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:42, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

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