Stern South African childhood fuelled Elon Musk’s ambition, says father

Errol Musk, the father of tech billionaire Elon Musk who spent his early life in apartheid-era South Africa, poses for a portrait at his house Langebaan, South Africa. Errol says his son has always been unusual – long before his controversial outbursts on Twitter. — AFP

LANGEBAAN, South Africa: Elon Musk knows how to dominate a news cycle, but for all the coverage of the world’s richest man, the tech billionaire’s early life in apartheid-era South Africa remains sketchy.

Amid Musk’s roller-coaster pursuit of Twitter, his father Errol Musk told AFP in an interview that he had tried to raise his sons “as South African boys”, instilling in them the same discipline he learnt in the military.