Elon Musk's war with South Africa, where Apartheid scars run deep (2025)

South Africa has found itself at the unlikely center of an American political firestorm, Elon Musk, who grew up there during apartheid, weighing in repeatedly.

Last week, America welcomed the first group of South African Afrikaans refugees to the country, a move which has proved contentious. Some dispute the validity of their refugee status and others see "double standards" of this program amid Trump's immigration crackdown, which has resulted in others seeking asylum turned away.

The exodus began after the South African government signed into law a new land expropriation bill in January, which sets out the legal procedures for South Africa to own private land for public purposes, with "nil compensation" in some circumstances. This was described by U.S. President Donald Trump as a "massive human rights violation."

"The South African government passed a law legalizing taking property from white people at will with no payment," Elon Musk posted in March, "Where is the outrage? Why is there no coverage by the legacy media?"

Elon Musk has spoken out about the bill multiple times, often alongside his claims that a "white genocide" is taking place in South Africa, usually in reference to farm murders and the political rhetoric of Julius Malema, the head of a left-wing political party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

South Africa has repeatedly denied allegations of discriminating against people with a recent court ruling calling claims of a white genocide "clearly imagined" and "not real."

Elon Musk also has an ongoing gripe with South Africa's race relations laws, which stipulate that any investors in the country's telecoms sector provide 30 percent of the equity in the South African part of the enterprise to Black-owned business.

He posted about this most recently just before the weekend, when he said: "South Africa has now passed 142 laws forcing discrimination against anyone who is not black! Even though I was born in South Africa, the government will not grant Starlink a license to operate simply because I am not black.

"This is a shameful disgrace to the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela who sought to have all races treated equally in South Africa."

Elon Musk's Life in South Africa

Elon Musk, 53, who has said he "considers himself to be simply an American," was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1971. He lived there for 18 years before he left for Canada, where his mother Maye is from, in 1989.

These years encompass some of the most intense phases of both resistance and repression under apartheid, when there were multiple mass protests and a state of emergency in place from 1984 to 1989.

Under apartheid, a white minority ruled South Africa for much of the second half of the 20th century, enforcing a system of racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhite populations. Universal suffrage was eventually established in 1994, allowing all citizens, regardless of race, to vote in national elections.

Elon Musk's father Errol described his family's life on the South African podcast the Wide Awake Podcast when he said his home in Pretoria was what is "today the home of the European ambassador to South Africa."

"It's probably one of the finest homes in Pretoria," he said. "Before the European ambassador lived there, it was the headquarters of the United Nations in the southern hemisphere."

He went on to describe having a chef at the house, a tennis court, a gymnasium, and a horse stud in Sandton, the wealthiest square mile in Africa.

Elon Musk first attended the private, all-white Bryanston High School, where he was famously bullied and ultimately hospitalized after being pushed down the stairs, before he moved to Pretoria Boys High School, where he was well-liked and had a group of friends, according to two of his former classmates who spoke to The Guardian.

This school became the first government school to admit a black pupil in 1981, with then-headteacher Malcolm Armstrong "forcing boys to think about the country in which we lived and the attitudes we had," said Patrick Conroy, who was two years below Elon Musk.

"He frequently addressed our school assemblies, emphasizing the importance of democracy, human rights and social justice," Conroy said.

Despite the tumultuous time in the country, Errol Musk describes the general atmosphere for Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk as "very safe." "There was no crime to speak of," he said, telling how his sons used to saddle up their horses and go riding.

Errol Musk once told The Guardian about the years during apartheid: "It was a good time, because we had no crime. There were no problems. People, blacks and whites, got on very well with each other. Everything worked. That's the reality. Of course people don't want to hear that, but that's the truth."

Elon Musk actually got angry with his father for supporting Trump in 2016, according to biographer Walter Isaacson, who wrote a book about Elon Musk in 2023.

Musk has previously described himself as "not a conservative" but then "things changed when Biden came in and Elon realized they're trying to destroy America," his father said.

South Africans Weigh In

Sally Matthews, an associate professor in politics and international relations at Rhodes University, whose work has focused on white identity in South Africa, disagreed with Musk's characterization of what is happening in South Africa.

"It seems that a relatively small group of powerful white South Africans (some based in the U.S, some not) are stoking existing white supremacist orientations in the USA with some outrageous results (like the granting of "refugee" status to some white South Africans)," she told Newsweek. "Most South Africans think this situation is ridiculous. I am sure Musk knows that the whole rhetoric about South Africa being on the brink of some kind of 'white genocide' is a complete lie."

She went on: "It is worth noting that Musk's father lives in South Africa (despite the supposed impending genocide), has ridiculous views and is nevertheless having a great time being interviewed on celebrity podcasts here in SA, all the while his son and his son's allies in the U.S. claim that whites are being persecuted in South Africa."

"It's extremely sad that Musk is now the world's most famous white South African. We're not all like him, fortunately," Matthews added.

Conversely, Katia Beeden, a campaigner for "persecuted minority South Africans" and spokesperson for Amerikaners, a group that supports "disenfranchised South Africans seeking a new future in the United States," said: "I 100 percent believe that Elon Musk's rhetoric resonates with the majority of white South Africans living here."

"Elon Musk was born here, his father still lives here," she told Newsweek. "So he has deep ties to the country. He knows exactly what's going on and we are just so grateful that he He used his platform to shine a light on what is going on here."

"Many of us in South Africa feel overlooked and ignored and we've been suffering in silence for years and we've been too scared to keep speak up because if we do speak up we're just called racists," she added.

Newsweek has contacted SpaceX and Tesla's press teams, via email, for comment on behalf of Musk.