Errol Musk gives interviews frequently and speaks without much hedging. In November 2025 he sat down with CNN for a documentary about the “white genocide” narrative, and denied on camera that Black South Africans were oppressed under apartheid.
This page reproduces what he said, in his words, with dates and sources. It does not attach a label to him. The reason for that is set out at the foot of the page, and it is not squeamishness.
Who he is
Errol Musk is a South African electromechanical engineer, born in 1946 and married to Maye Musk from 1970 to 1979. He was 79 at the time of the CNN interview. He remained in South Africa after his son emigrated in 1989, and over the past several years has become a frequent interviewee on South African politics, race and his family.
The CNN interview, November 2025
CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan travelled to South Africa for a documentary examining the “white genocide” claim promoted by Donald Trump and by Elon Musk. Errol Musk was one of the interviewees.
On American demographic change
Asked about projections that white Americans will cease to be a majority within roughly two decades, he said the United States would be doomed, and that such a shift would be a very bad thing:
Errol Musk“You want to see the US go down? Why? You don’t like cars or electric cars? You don’t like technology? Or what is it? You want to go back to the jungle?”
On whether apartheid oppressed Black South Africans
When O’Sullivan put it to him that white rule had oppressed millions of Black people for decades, he rejected the premise outright:
Errol Musk“No! How do you oppress? You know, we gave them work, we fed them. They grew from a tiny little group into a massive group. That’s not oppression, that’s feeding them! You only grow big if you get fed. You only start at 800,000 and become 50 million if you get fed! We fed them, for crying out loud! You know, enough with this nonsense.”
He said he had never seen the oppression described. O’Sullivan’s reply was brief:
Donie O’Sullivan“Yeah, but ’cause you’re white.”
On apartheid’s legacy and present-day South Africa
Errol Musk“We’re finished with Apartheid. We need to get over it, forget about it. We can’t blame everything on Apartheid.”
“When I travel here, I see that South Africa has the least racism here. I don’t see any problems.”
On farm murders
He has claimed that white farmers are three times more likely to be killed than police officers, that this is terrible, and that farmers live in fear. He has separately denied any involvement in the US executive order granting refugee status to Afrikaners.
The underlying genocide claim is examined with South African police statistics on our page covering “Kill the Boer”. We have not verified the specific farmer-to-police-officer ratio and do not repeat it as established.
June 2026: on why his son left
In interviews in 2026, Errol Musk rejected the account his son has given of leaving South Africa in 1989 to avoid conscription, calling it nonsense. His alternative explanation was that white South Africans of the period were frightened of the country’s political direction:
Errol Musk“They were very afraid of a black government. It is no use pretending.”
That exchange is covered in full on Elon Musk’s South Africa.
What apartheid actually involved
The claim that Black South Africans were not oppressed under apartheid is not a matter of opinion or perspective. Apartheid was among the most comprehensively documented systems of racial domination of the twentieth century, and its mechanisms were statutory and recorded:
- Pass laws controlling where Black South Africans could live, work and travel, enforced by arrest.
- Forced removals of entire communities from designated white areas.
- Disenfranchisement — no vote in national elections for the Black majority.
- Segregated education, explicitly designed to prepare Black children for subordinate roles.
- Job reservation, restricting skilled occupations by race.
- Criminalisation of movement, producing mass arrests over decades.
The system was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations General Assembly, and South Africa’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented its operation in detail from testimony given by people on all sides of it.
Why this page does not carry a verdict
It is weaker. A verdict is our opinion, which a reader can dismiss. “He said Black South Africans were not oppressed because we fed them, on CNN, in November 2025” is a fact, which they cannot. The quotations do more work than any adjective we could attach to them.
It is the wrong standard. This site documents statements. It does not adjudicate character, for Errol Musk or for anyone else, including his son. Applying a lower standard to a less famous person than to a more famous one would be exactly backwards.
It would be a change of method to suit a target. Everything else here works because we went to the record first and reported what we found. Deciding the conclusion and then assembling support for it is the opposite process, and doing it once would fairly call every other page into question.
What this page is not
Errol Musk’s statements are his own. He and his son are estranged by both their accounts, and nothing on this page is evidence of what Elon Musk thinks. Inherited or transferred views are not a category this site recognises — the same principle applied on our page about Joshua Haldeman.
This page also concerns only public statements made in broadcast and published interviews. It contains nothing about Errol Musk’s private life, and this site does not publish such material.
Errol Musk has a right of reply here, as anyone written about on this site does. A response of reasonable length will be published in full and unedited.
Outstanding on this page
The CNN interview should be cited to the broadcast or CNN’s own publication of it rather than to secondary reporting of the clips. We have not reviewed the full documentary, only the widely reported excerpts, and there may be material context in the unbroadcast portions. The 2026 interviews should be cited to their recordings.
Sources
- Elon Musk’s father makes remark about white Americans becoming a minorityThe Grio via Yahoo · 15 November 2025 · full quotations, O’Sullivan reply
- ‘We fed them, for crying out loud’: Errol Musk denies black oppression during apartheidThe Herald (South Africa) · 17 November 2025
- ‘That’s because you’re white’: CNN host fires back at Errol MuskIBTimes UK · 16 November 2025
- Errol Musk sparks outrage after denying apartheid oppressionThe South African · 17 November 2025 · statements on present-day South Africa
- Errol Musk denies apartheid oppression in CNN interviewCentral News South Africa · 16 November 2025 · broadcast date and context
- Before the trillions: why Elon Musk walked away from South AfricaBusiness Day · 18 June 2026
- Big lie about why Elon Musk left South AfricaNewsday · 17 June 2026
- Errol Musk and apartheid amnesiaMail & Guardian · 20 November 2025 · commentary, apartheid mechanisms
This article follows the standards set out in How This Site Sources Its Claims. If you believe anything on this page is inaccurate, please use our corrections policy and right of reply. Corrections are published, dated and logged.