Errol Musk

Errol Musk was born in 1946 in Pretoria to Walter Henry James Musk and Cora Amelia Robinson.[1] His father was a South African veteran of World War II and his mother was British.[2] His grandmother was the first chiropractor in Canada.[3][4]

Musk worked as a pilot, a sailor, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, a consultant, and a property developer, before retiring early.[2] In 1969, he became a 50% owner of an emerald mine on Lake Tanganyika,[2][5] that he bought for £40,000, funded by selling an airplane for £80,000.[6][7] 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."[4][8]

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.[9]

Errol Musk's claims that he invested in Elon Musk's software company Zip2 have been rejected by Elon Musk.[4]

Musk met Maye Haldeman when he was 11 years old and they were childhood friends before marrying in 1970.[10] She gave birth to three children; Elon Reeve Musk born on 28 June 1971, Kimbal Reeve Musk born on 20 September 1972, and Tosca Musk born on 20 July 1974.[11] The family lived in Pretoria,[10][12] where Maye worked as a dietician and a model.[10][11] Musk told Agence France-Presse that he was a strict father who raised his children with discipline and austerity.[13] After engaging in extra-marital affairs,[4] Errol and Maye divorced in 1979, and both sons moved in with their father.[11][5] Maye has stated that Errol beat her. [14]

Musk was married to Heide Bezuidenhout for eighteen years and helped her raise her young daughter Jana Bezuidenhout, a child from a previous relationship.[15][16] At the time of their marriage, Jana Bezuidenhout was only four years old and lived together with them.[17] 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.[18][19] Musk described the first child as unplanned.[20] At the time of their daughter's birth, according to The Times, Musk was 72 and Jana Bezuidenhout was 30 years old.[21] As of 2022, Musk and Jana Bezuidenhout were no longer living together.[20] Musk has a total of seven children.[22] He is estranged from his son Elon.[23]

In 1998, Musk shot and killed three out of six or seven burglars who forced their way into his Johannesburg home and who opened fire upon detection.[24]

• Musk family