{"id":4120,"date":"2025-04-05T04:12:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T04:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/the-formation-of-elon-musk-how-his-childhood-in-apartheid-era-south-africa-shaped-him-truly-extraordinary-it-deeply-influenced-his-thoughts-later-in-life-news\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T04:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T04:13:11","slug":"the-formation-of-elon-musk-how-his-childhood-in-apartheid-era-south-africa-shaped-him-truly-extraordinary-it-deeply-influenced-his-thoughts-later-in-life-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/?p=4120","title":{"rendered":"The Formation of Elon Musk: How His Childhood in Apartheid-Era South Africa Shaped Him? Truly extraordinary, it deeply influenced his thoughts later in life."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The billionaire and now Trump adviser grew up amid the collapse of white rule, attending an all-white school and then a more liberal one<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\"><span class=\"dcr-15rw6c2\">W<\/span>ith an imposing double-winged redbrick main building, and school songs lifted directly from Harrow\u2019s songbook, Pretoria boys high school is every inch the South African mirror of the English private schools it was founded in 1901 to imitate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Elon Musk, who has rapidly become one of the most powerful people in\u00a0US politics, spent his final school years in the 1980s as a day pupil on the lush, tree-filled campus in South Africa\u2019s capital, close to his father\u2019s large detached home in Waterkloof, a wealthy Pretoria suburb shaded by purple jacaranda blossoms in spring.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/46899954973dd9986d97633854f8af007af989dd\/0_0_9000_5789\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Two pupils walk up steps towards the front entrance of the school\" width=\"445\" height=\"286.2338888888889\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"a22623a4-c57e-456a-9bef-de2a236b3bb7\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">The imposing red brick frontage of Pretoria boys high school.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">South\u00a0Africa\u00a0was rocked by uprisings as apartheid entered its dying years. In 1984, black townships across the country revolted. By 1986, the white minority government had imposed a state of emergency. But in the segregated white enclaves, life was affluent and peaceful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cWhile the country as a whole was very much in flames and in turmoil, we were blissfully very safe in our little leafy suburbs, going about our very normal life,\u201d said Jonathan Stewart, who was a year above Musk at Pretoria boys, which also counts the Labour politician Peter Hain, the Booker prize-winning novelist Damon Galgut and the murderer and Paralympian Oscar Pistorius among its former pupils.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cYou had this wealthy set, in relative terms, and everybody else was excluded.\u201d<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/89ca19fd13fa6ee13224b5e9dd77dc18ab181528\/90_220_871_630\/master\/871.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Class photo\" width=\"445\" height=\"321.87141216991967\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"7c016fbd-4e8e-4406-90cc-de97550150b6\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Musk (middle row, 2nd from the left) at Pretoria boys high school in 1988.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Pretoria boys high school<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk, who was born in Pretoria in 1971, railed on his social media platform X last month against the \u201copenly racist laws\u201d of the country of his birth and responded \u201cyes\u201d to the statement: \u201cWhite South Africans are being persecuted for their race in their home country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">After the posts by the man now at the helm of Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d (Doge), a special group Trump has created, the US president signed an executive order accusing South Africa\u2019s government of\u00a0\u201cunjust racial discrimination\u201d\u00a0against white Afrikaners, citing a law allowing land to be expropriated in certain circumstances. The order cut aid to South Africa, which receives 17% of its HIV\/Aids budget from the US, and offered asylum to Afrikaners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">It was not clear the extent to which Musk, who left South Africa in 1989 for his mother\u2019s country, Canada, and then went to the US, had a direct hand in encouraging Trump to issue the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trump has taken an interest in the alleged persecution of white South Africans since his first presidency, when an Afrikaner rights group\u00a0travelled to the US\u00a0to claim, falsely, that white farmers were being murdered for their land with the complicity of the government. Trump saw one of the group\u2019s leaders interviewed on Fox News and tweeted his support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trump has also been influenced by other interests, including US groups critical of\u00a0South Africa\u2019s case against Israel\u00a0at the international court of justice (ICJ) over the war in Gaza, which he referred to in his executive order.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/477c377b799179092e9b5951062b5f970ce39ede\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Schoolboys in short trousers walk down a corridor\" width=\"445\" height=\"267\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"e30b61a8-91bb-4aca-81b5-4bec28e14659\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Pupils at Pretoria boys high school, where Musk was a day pupil.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">But with Musk now among Trump\u2019s closest advisers, it is unlikely he has not made his views known to the president, given they are also tied up with his business interests in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk has claimed that land reform laws, in a country where the white minority, who make up just 7% of South Africa\u2019s population, still own\u00a0more than 70%\u00a0of agricultural land, are racist and amount to theft. He has endorsed claims that the killings of white farmers amount to genocide;\u00a0research\u00a0suggests the crimes are financially motivated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk\u2019s attacks have ratcheted up at a time when he is in a dispute with the South African government about affirmative action laws, as he tries to sell his Starlink satellite network in the country. The world\u2019s richest man objects to a law requiring that investors in the telecoms sector provide 30% of the equity in the South African part of the enterprise to Black-owned businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Trump\u2019s executive order will add to the pressure on South Africa\u2019s government to exempt Musk from the Black empowerment laws.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">X\u2019s press team and Musk\u2019s lawyer did not respond to interview requests or emailed questions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">To what extent Musk\u2019s years growing up under the collapsing apartheid regime influenced his positions today, from\u00a0making what looked like a Nazi salute\u00a0\u2013 a characterisation he rejects \u2013 at Trump\u2019s inauguration celebrations in January to his embrace of far-right political parties such as Germany\u2019s Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland, remains an open debate.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ff21984972ad1f5fba8e0b6f9b844487106fcd69\/0_342_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"\u2018ER Musk\u2019 on a corridor\u2019s red wall among other names written in yellow\" width=\"445\" height=\"267\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"2f141bdd-bc78-46c1-a2ea-249f43d9a0cd\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Musk\u2019s name on the donor list in the new auditorium at Pretoria boys high school.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">White, English-speaking South Africans such as Musk\u2019s family benefited from apartheid\u2019s racial hierarchy but lived mostly separate lives from the ruling Afrikaners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk spent the first two years of South Africa\u2019s five high school years at the all-white Bryanston high school in Johannesburg\u2019s leafy northern suburbs. Founded in 1968, it is a mixed-sex, English-language, fee-paying state school, made up of rectangular mid-century buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Like South Africa then and now, Bryanston high was sports mad. \u201cIt was a little bit like when you think of American society,\u201d said Lesley Burns, who finished at the school in 1984, Musk\u2019s first year. \u201cThere were all the jocks and the popular guys in the football team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk, who was on the school\u2019s chess team in 1985, was viciously bullied. The hounding culminated with him being thrown down a set of stairs, beaten so badly that he was hospitalised. The school declined an interview.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/3c0bc777a051881c488193110f1f30e9872c817c\/182_79_1884_1130\/master\/1884.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Chess team photo of boys in school uniform, with some seated in front and a second row standing behind, and a woman seated in the centre\" width=\"445\" height=\"266.90552016985134\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"0924d7bc-95b0-45ab-ae0d-ae206d6b0cda\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Musk (front left) in the chess team from the school\u2019s 1985 yearbook.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Bryanston high school<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk\u2019s father moved him and his brother, Kimbal, to Pretoria boys, where he was well liked, according to Gideon Fourie, who had computer science classes with Musk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cHe was a very average personality,\u201d Fourie said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t in any way like a super jock, or a super nerd, or a super punk \u2026 He had a group of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">South African media were subjected to strict government censorship. Newspapers would appear with censored sections blacked out, particularly reports of the growing unrest in the townships and mass arrests, until those were also banned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">In contrast, the fee-paying Pretoria boys was liberal, for its time. In 1981 it became the first government school to admit a Black pupil. The then headteacher, Malcolm Armstrong, used a loophole that allowed it to let in the sons of diplomats from the \u201chomelands\u201d within South Africa that the apartheid system claimed were independent states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cArmstrong even defied the authorities by meeting with the ANC [African National Congress] in Dakar while it was still banned,\u201d said Patrick Conroy, who was in Kimbal\u2019s year, two years below Musk. \u201cHe frequently addressed our school assemblies, emphasising the importance of democracy, human rights and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The school\u2019s current headteacher, Gregary Hassenkamp, was also in Kimbal\u2019s year and has similar memories of his predecessor, although he noted that not all teachers shared Armstrong\u2019s liberal views.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=380&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 1300px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1300px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=380&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 1300px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=300&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 980px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 980px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=300&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 980px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2fc69ad5bbff66f9bf66792f2a25134ba85d34b0\/2000_0_4044_5057\/master\/4044.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Gregary Hassenkamp seated with hands clasped\" width=\"445\" height=\"556.4700791295747\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1sv232j\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"805aee71-7d61-49d8-a31c-6487aeb9e569\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Gregary Hassenkamp, Pretoria boys school\u2019s current headteacher.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cI remember him forcing boys to think about the country in which we lived and the attitudes we had,\u201d Hassenkamp said in an interview in his wood-panelled office, wearing a flowing black gown and a tie and socks in the school\u2019s red, white and green colours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk has previously described himself as \u201cnot a conservative\u201d and backed the Democratic candidate in every presidential election going back to Barack Obama\u2019s victory in 2008, until he moved to the right. But Musk is clearly suspicious of democracy and the leaders it produces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">In the 1930s, his grandfather headed an anti-democratic fringe political movement in Canada with fascist overtones, which campaigned for government by elite technocrats. He then moved to apartheid South Africa because the racist system appealed to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk now appears happy to embrace the US version of the \u201cstrongman\u201d ruler by backing Trump\u2019s claim that the will of the president is paramount.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Some of Musk\u2019s school peers speculated that his current views of South Africa may be influenced by his missing out on the ups and downs of the negotiations to end apartheid and the \u201cmiracle\u201d of Nelson Mandela becoming the country\u2019s first Black president in 1994.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Since then, the governments led by Mandela\u2019s ANC party have failed to address the world\u2019s worst economic inequality. While its\u00a0Black economic empowerment policies\u00a0offer tax breaks and state contracts to Black-owned companies, Black people are five times likelier than white people to be unemployed. South Africa also has one of the world\u2019s highest murder rates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">It is not uncommon to hear white South Africans say they are\u00a0being discriminated against, often citing affirmative action laws. In mid-February,\u00a0hundreds gathered outside the US embassy\u00a0in Pretoria carrying signs with slogans such as \u201cThank God for President Trump\u201d and \u201cMake South Africa Great Again\u201d.<\/p>\n<picture class=\"dcr-evn1e9\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=620&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 660px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=605&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 480px)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 320px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)\"\/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" media=\"(min-width: 320px)\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-evn1e9\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/108128c231ca6978fc2d684362ff7532cb6c7630\/0_600_9000_5400\/master\/9000.jpg?width=445&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" alt=\"Pictures of school rugby teams line the walls of a corridor\" width=\"445\" height=\"267\"\/><\/picture><button class=\"open-lightbox dcr-4tmywn\" type=\"button\" data-element-id=\"d56a9315-78a2-45c2-8c72-c8e8c33329d8\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-194i6pr\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><br \/>\n<span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Hallways in the Pretoria school\u2019s main building.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: Moeletsi Mabe\/The Guardian<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">While it is rare to hear white South Africans say they want a return to apartheid, it is also not uncommon to hear older people express nostalgia for that time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cIt was a good time, because we had no crime. There were no problems. People, Blacks and whites, got on very well with each other,\u201d Errol Musk said in a video interview from his spacious Cape Town home, when asked about his son Elon\u2019s childhood. \u201cEverything worked. That\u2019s the reality. Of course people don\u2019t want to hear that, but that\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Musk and his two younger full siblings, Kimbal and Tosca, have had a tumultuous relationship with their father. Kimbal told Musk\u2019s biographer Walter Isaacson that their father would scream at them for two to three hours, calling them worthless and pathetic. Their mother, Maye, has accused him of physical abuse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cIt\u2019s rubbish,\u201d Errol said when asked about the allegations, which he has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The brothers became estranged from their father in 2017, not for the first time, when he had a child with his 30-year-old stepdaughter, Jana Bezuidenhout, according to Isaacson. In Errol\u2019s telling, they got angry with him when he expressed his support for Trump in 2016, at a party in Cape Town they threw for his 70th and Musk\u2019s 45th birthdays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cThings changed when Biden came in and Elon realised they\u2019re trying to destroy America,\u201d Errol said. \u201cNow we exchange messages about every day. Of course, he\u2019s not always able to answer, so his PA will answer me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\"><em>Additional reporting by Chris McGreal<\/em><\/p>\n<footer class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u00a0This article was amended on 11 March 2025. An earlier version referred to a law requiring foreign investors in the telecoms sector to provide 30% of the equity in the South African part of the enterprise to Black-owned businesses. This law applies to all investors, foreign and domestic.<\/p>\n<\/footer>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The billionaire and now Trump adviser grew up amid the collapse of white rule, attending an all-white school and then a more liberal one With an imposing double-winged redbrick main &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4123,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120\/revisions\/4123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightflowmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}