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 between himself and Chauke that backed up his account. Chauke did not respond to questions by Reuters about his role in contacting Musk's father. Ramaphosa's office confirmed the phone conversation with Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, in a post on the tycoon's X social media platform.
Contacted by Reuters, Ramaphosa's spokesperson declined to comment on how the conversation with Elon Musk came about or on its content, only saying: "Errol Musk is a private citizen, his views are his personal views."
Elon Musk did not reply to multiple requests for comment from Reuters.
The trigger for the sudden flurry of backdoor diplomacy was a post on Sunday by Trump who said - without citing evidence - that "South Africa is confiscating land" and "certain classes of people" were being treated "very badly".
He added that he would cut off funding to the country in response, prompting a nearly 2% slide in South Africa's rand in early trading on Monday, and a fall in stocks and government bonds. The cost of insuring South African debt against default rose to its highest since early August.
Trump was referring to a bill signed into law by Ramaphosa last month with the aim of addressing racial disparities in land ownership that have persisted in South Africa since apartheid ended 30 years ago -- a target of public criticism by Elon Musk and many white farmers.
The law allows the state to expropriate land "in the public interest", in some cases without compensating the owner. South Africa had previously set a target for the government to transfer 30% of farmland to Black hands that has been repeatedly pushed back. As of 2018, only 8% had been transferred, according to a government survey of title deeds.
White landowners possess three quarters of South Africa's freehold farmland, compared with 4% for Black landowners, according to the most recent state audit. Black people make up about 80% of South Africa's total population, while about 8% are white.
Ramaphosa responded to Trump's comments on Monday, saying the government had not confiscated any land and he looked forward to engaging with Trump to foster a better understanding of a policy designed to ensure equitable public access to land.
Trump's attack was echoed by backer Elon Musk, who addressed Ramaphosa in a post on X on Monday accusing South Africa of having "openly racist ownership laws."
Errol Musk, an engineer who said he works in property development and for his son's U.S. satellite company Starlink, said Trump would be right to cut funding to South Africa.
He said he did not know if his son had exerted influence over Trump on the issue, but did not think that was necessary as he said Washington was right to scrutinise how U.S. funding was being used abroad.
"He (Elon) would point out things about South Africa, 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 $500 million a year for treatment for South African HIV sufferers. Why?"
Washington committed $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, of which $315 million was for HIV/AIDS. Ramaphosa said U.S. funding accounted for 17% of South Africa's programme to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, which disproportionately affects poor and Black people.
"I can only imagine that Elon would have said (to Ramaphosa) 'we want to help you but you have to quit this war on white people in South Africa'," said Musk senior.
"I'd imagine he'd be saying 'do you want Zimbabwe here?'," he said.
Violent seizures of white-owned farms instigated by late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in the 2000s prompted an exodus of thousands of white farmers. Their departure was widely seen as having been a disaster for the country's agriculture and wider economy. Reuters could not establish if Zimbabwe arose in Elon Musk's conversation with Ramaphosa.
South Africa's land reform policies since the end of apartheid in 1994 have never involved the forced seizure of white-owned land.
