Elon Musk’s father seeks Russian refuge for white South African farmers
Errol Musk, the father of billionaire Elon Musk, is reportedly working to get refugee status in Russia for white South African farmers.
Moscow, Russia – The father of tech billionaire Elon Musk is working on a project to provide refugee status in Russia for South African farmers, he told AFP on Tuesday, in a project similar to one by the US government.
The initiative would resettle 50 families from the white Afrikaans minority, descendants of the first Dutch settlers, according to a Russian official.
The same group of South Africans has been offered refugee status by President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed they face persecution under the post-apartheid government.
Nearly 5,000 white Afrikaners have entered the US as refugees since Trump took office in January last year, and all but halted refugee programs for every other group.
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The US program has angered the South African government, which denies any discrimination.
Contacted by AFP by telephone on Tuesday, Errol Musk said, “It’s about providing refugee status to South African farmers.”
Musk, who regularly visits Russia and attended an April 12 Orthodox Easter mass in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin, did not give further details of the project.
“Simply because I am not Black!”
In an interview with Russian media Gubernia 33, Musk justified the project by claiming white Afrikaner farmers were being targeted for murder, allegations strongly denied in South Africa.
Washington made similar claims in its justification for encouraging Afrikaners to resettle in the US.
In an interview with CNN late last year, he rejected that there had been racial oppression under apartheid, a harsh system of segregation that denied the Black majority basic rights.
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Elon Musk, who left South Africa in his late teens, regularly accuses the government of racism.
In an outburst on social media this weekend, he said: “South Africa won’t allow Starlink to be licensed, even though I was BORN THERE, simply because I am not Black!”
South African laws designed to rebalance apartheid-era discrimination require large companies to be at least 30% owned by people from previously disadvantaged communities.
In response, a spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman accused Musk – who is currently the world’s richest man – of pushing “lies and disinformation.”
Cover photo: Collage: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP & Pavel Bednyakov / POOL / AFP
