Musk’s dad says he arranged son’s call with South African leader

By Wendell Roelf and Sisipho Skweyiy

South Africa’s president needed to call Elon Musk on Monday evening.

The billionaire had publicly accused his post-apartheid government of anti-white racism, and now Musk’s ally, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would cut more than $400 million in funding to the country.

So Bejani Chauke, an adviser to Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, called Musk’s father, Errol, a 78-year-old engineer who lives in a luxury double-storey coastal villa a two-hour drive from Cape Town, Musk senior said.

“I was asked if I can arrange a quick talk between Ramaphosa and Elon last night … so I did and then they spoke a few minutes later,” Errol Musk told Reuters at his home in Langebaan, a mostly white enclave looking onto a lagoon fed by the Atlantic Ocean where he keeps a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce.

He briefly showed an exchange of WhatsApp messages