Elon Musk is everywhere.
He is firing federal employees, getting vital government data, entering the Oval Office, appearing on Fox News with President Trump, and even attending White House Cabinet Meetings. For some, his rampage through U.S. state institutions replaced private interests. For others, this is equivalent to a large-scale technology acquisition. For many, most importantly, this is the inexplicable core of power. But Mr. Musk’s role in the Trump administration has cemented his reputation as one of the most powerful people on the planet.
But discussions about Mr. Musk, especially in the United States, often missed something: he is a white man in South Africa, part of the crowd, and for centuries it has sat on the racial hierarchy maintained under violent colonial rule. History is important. For all attempts to describe Mr. Musk as a homemade genius or enthusiastic technocrat, he is actually an obvious ideological figure whose worldview is inseparable from the breeding of apartheid South Africa. Not only is Mr. Musk a quirky billionaire, he also represents an unsolved question: What happens when settler rules fail but settlers still exist? This is what it plays in the United States today.
Born in Pretoria in 1971, Mr. Musk is a typical growth for the white elite in South Africa. The family is wealthy, and although his parents divorced at a young age, their economic status is shaped by systems designed to assist white people. Mr. Musk doesn't seem to like his private education – stories of bullying and loneliness – but he still benefits from the advantages he gives. Although his father was an engineer and once a member of the Anti-Apartheid Progressive Party, Mr. Musk had little evidence of his political beliefs. Like many white South Africans, Mr. Musk left the country before the collapse of racial rule and settled in Canada, where his mother was born, in 1989.
He never came back, but South Africa was obviously with him. Take his recent intervention as an example, and the debate on land reform in the country. In response to a bill passed in January that allows land acquisition without compensation in certain circumstances, Mr. Musk used his platform to suggest that white South Africans have suffered unique persecution. It doesn't matter, land restoration is a widely accepted norm in postcolonial societies, or a prominent field or mandatory purchase law to do similar things in the United States and elsewhere. The Trump administration – a voice that expands the fringe, promotes distorted racial victim narratives and symbolizes Musk’s claims – is too happy.
Mr. Musk’s role in the controversy shows that he does not go beyond the logic of apartheid, but rather absorbs it. His ideological commitments—relaxed the market, hostility to labor organizations and Trump nationalism—have tracked it. In fact, his politics repeats the economic principles of apartheid globally: maintaining privileged zones under the guise of “free enterprise” while resisting any action against reallocation as a threat. You can hear his hard work in his advice and plead for special treatment for him and his business.
Mr. Musk, one of many reactionary figures with Southern African roots, found an unlikely home in Silicon Valley that now has a disproportionate impact on shaping the right-wing politics of the United States and globally. These people, such as Peter Thiel and David Sacks, originated from historical traditions, respected hierarchies and tried to maintain racial and economic dominance, only found themselves in the world revealed by the order. Their politics reflects the instinct to uphold elite domination, obscures the language of elite and market freedom, while resentment towards the new power structure threatens their status.
For them, southern Africa will never be far away. They are part of a global right and have long been fascinated by Rhodesia and its successor Zimbabwe. To them, the loss of the white minority rule in Zimbabwe represents a model of civilization decay, a model of the former “successful” colonial states falling into chaos through decolonization. The ghost of “Zimbabwefication” is regarded as a warning to any reallocation of power. Now, South Africa – according to Mr Musk, South Africa “openly strives for white genocide” – is adopting a cape of intimidation stories. The implicit argument is that once displaced settler power only leads to destruction.
South Africa opposes Israel's genocide aggression in Gaza, leading the allegation attempt to be held accountable under international law, to no avail. This outspoken opposition further alienated the country from the great Western powers that supported Israel, strengthening its perception of South Africa as a rogue state in the eyes of global rights. South African-born Breitbart commentator Joel Pollak is one of the leaders of Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the country, surely believe it is. For figures like Mr. Musk, South Africa’s position on Israel undoubtedly confirms their perception of the state as a lost cause – an outpost of a “civilization” that once ruled by white people, now succumb to the chaos of majority rule and decolonization.
This reaction is both ideological and personal. Although he strongly opposes “awakening” identity politics, Mr. Musk is actually an enthusiastic identityist. He raised the claim of the far-right group in South Africa that the government is “antied” and that there are 142 “racial laws” in its books. However, their approach to defining “race law” is ridiculous: any law that qualifies a legally relevant law. Through this indicator, even laws that prohibit arbitrary racial discrimination or deprecation of discrimination in the era of apartheid will count as such. Given Mr. Musk's active demolition of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, it is ironic toward an identity group's obsession.
This is also very dangerous. This fixation led to Mr. Trump's potentially devastating impact on the treatment of HIV and AIDS through executive orders. South Africa is now disgusting: Secretary of State Marco Rubio refuses to go to the 20-summit panel later this year, calling it a hotbed of “anti-American” “doing something very bad.” Given the government's fascination with old-fashioned colonialism – its supposed plan is most obvious with the “people of the world”'s plan to resettle Gaza, while aspiring to buy Greenland and annex the Panama Canal – it is not surprising that it sees South Africa as a prophecy of resistance against the anti-stay prophecy.
Mr. Musk, who was once an entrepreneur, was happy to provide publicity. But South Africa’s history tells a different story – white dominance is not inevitable, and settler domination does not last, and a different future, however uncertain, is still possible. Mr. Musk can do everything he can to reverse or subvert the story from his lofty position of power. But he will not be able to. His history was not colonized by Mars.
