Elon Musk’s dad confirms setting up call with Ramaphosa

Errol Musk

Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa urgently called billionaire Elon Musk on Monday night following Musk’s accusations that the post-apartheid government was anti-white and after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut over $400 million in US aid to South Africa.

According to Reuters, the call was arranged through Musk’s father, Errol Musk, who confirmed the conversation but declined to provide details.

Errol said that  Bejani Chauke, an adviser to President Ramaphosa, contacted him to facilitate the call. The 78-year-old engineer resides in a luxurious double-storey coastal villa, approximately two hours from Cape Town.

‘I was asked if I can arrange a quick talk between Ramaphosa and Elon last night, so I did, and they spoke a few minutes later,’ said Errol.

He briefly displayed WhatsApp messages exchanged with Chauke as evidence supporting his account.

Watch the interviw below:

He said that he was unsure whether his son had influenced Trump on the matter but believed it was unnecessary, as he felt Washington had a valid reason to examine how US funds were allocated internationally.

Errol supported Trump’s aid-cutting threats and questioned US taxpayer funding for HIV treatment in South Africa.

‘He (Elon) would point out things about SA, but the Americans themselves are not stupid. Everyone wants money from them, that is what it boils down to,” he said.

‘I would like to know why American taxpayers have to pay nearly $500m (R9.3bn) a year for treatment for South African HIV sufferers. Why?’

‘I can only imagine Elon would have said (to Ramaphosa) ‘We want to help you but you have to quit this war on white people in SA’,’ said Errol.

‘I’d imagine he’d be saying ‘do you want Zimbabwe here?’

However, SA’s land reform policies have never involved forced seizures like Zimbabwe’s past land redistribution programme.

Ramaphosa’s office later acknowledged the call but did not comment on its content.

‘Yesterday, 3 February 2025, President @CyrilRamaphosa spoke to @ElonMusk on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa.

‘In the process, the President reiterated South Africa’s constitutionally embedded values of the respect for the rule of law, justice, fairness and equality,’ the Presidency said in a post on X.

The dispute was sparked by Trump’s social media claim that South Africa was ‘confiscating land’ and discriminating against certain groups, leading to a drop in the rand and a rise in the cost of insuring SA’s debt.

Trump’s remarks referred to a recent land reform law signed by Ramaphosa, allowing expropriation in the public interest, a policy criticised by Musk and others.

South Africa has long struggled with racial disparities in land ownership, with white landowners holding 75% of farmland despite making up only 8% of the population, according to reports.

Musk echoed Trump’s stance, calling SA’s policies ‘openly racist’.

On Wednesday, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya justified Ramaphosa’s call with Musk.

Magwenya said that Musk’s reaction to Ramaphosa’s post on X prompted the president to move the discussion off social media to prevent further misinformation.

‘Following Trump’s announcement, we issued a statement that was posted on X from the president’s handle. There was a response to that statement by Musk,’ said Magwenya during a media briefing.

‘The X is an influential platform and is owned by Musk. The president has held engagements with Musk prior to this announcement with the intention to see him invest more in South Africa. His particular interest was Starlink.

‘We’ve had open engagements with Elon Musk, so in light of this development, it was sensible, logical and quite important that the president engages with him so that we reinforce his own understanding of what is happening in South Africa. We flagged our concern with respect to   disinformation we saw in Trump’s announcement and his own response to our statement.

‘The president was quite emphatic in saying South Africa does not have racist ownership laws. All our laws take the cue from our constitution. And where they do not meet constitutional masters, we have an independent judiciary that deals with those issues without any political interference whatsoever. And these are South African strenghts that we are going to be repeating over and over again, not only to the Trump administration, but to others who may begin to have som form of doubt about the state of this country.’

Magwenya added: ‘The US is our second-largest trading partner, and we have a longstanding strategic political and cultural relationship with it. We respect this relationship, which has always been mutually beneficial and will continue to be mutually beneficial. Where there are bumps, as we have recently experienced, it will always be in our interest to engage various role players within the country’s leadership and also broadly in US society.’

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