{"id":816425,"date":"2025-03-12T11:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=816425"},"modified":"2025-03-12T11:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:39:14","slug":"elon-musks-south-african-citizenship-questioned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/816425\/elon-musks-south-african-citizenship-questioned\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk’s South African citizenship questioned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said he could not provide details on Elon Musk, Reon Barnard, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks\u2019 South African citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk, Barnard, Thiel, and Sacks are influential businessmen who are seen as close allies to United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk, born and raised in South Africa, heads up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been outspoken about the race-based laws in South Africa, which have prevented his satellite Internet service, Starlink, from launching locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStarlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa because I\u2019m not black,\u201d Musk said on his social media platform, X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sparked a debate about whether he was still a South African resident and how black economic empowerment (BEE) laws apply to his Starlink service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reon Barnard is a successful mining entrepreneur and a trustee of the Gary and Vivenne Player Foundation. He and Gary Player have close ties to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Sacks was born in Cape Town but moved to Tennessee when he was five. Like Musk, he started his journey in Silicon Valley at PayPal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the listing of PayPal on Nasdaq and its sale to eBay, Sacks, like Musk, used the proceeds to launch his own ventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump appointed Sacks as his artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto czar, which shows his influence in the new administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Thiel, the so-called \u2018Don\u2019 of the Paypal mafia, spent some time in South Africa before becoming a renowned tech investor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks, the relationship between the United States and South Africa became strained, partly due to local empowerment policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa was also criticised for its close relationship with enemies of the United States, including Iran, Hamas, China, and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States urged South Africa to roll back policies like the new Expropriation Act and become more business-friendly to attract foreign investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa hit back by launching a scathing attack on the Trump Administration and siding with Hamas against Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many South African politicians blame Musk, Barnard, Thiel, and Sacks for the strained relationship between the two nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk’s South African citizenship questioned<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Parliamentary member Thapelo Mogale asked Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber whether Elon Musk, Deon Barnard, Peter Thiel and David Sacks were South African citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also asked whether their South African citizenship status would be revoked as they are linked to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mogale argued that they funded his presidential campaign and contributed to his negative views about South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schreiber responded<\/a>, saying he could not disclose details about people\u2019s citizenship as the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) prohibits this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister added that the Department of Home Affairs will not weaponise the law to pursue political ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of being based on politics, our decisions are informed by the requirements of the Constitution, the rule of law, rationality, and just administrative action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He accused Mogale\u2019s question of being politically motivated as his leader, Julius Malema, is under fire for years of hateful and violent rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Malema is now cowering behind the Minister of Home Affairs in an ill-fated attempt to escape from the possible consequences of his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is advisable for his party leader to apologise for his inflammatory and divisive rhetoric and to meaningfully commit to a program of restitution and nation building,\u201d Schreiber said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk recently said he grew up as an English South African and considers himself to be “simply an American”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat said, what\u2019s happening in South Africa is deeply wrong. Not what Mandela intended at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Home Affairs Minister was asked whether Elon Musk, Deon Barnard, Peter Andreas Thiel and David Oliver Sacks are South African citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":806284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[21989,2662,21990,20612,3896,21988],"class_list":["post-816425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-david-sacks","tag-elon-musk","tag-home-affairs-minister-leon-schreiber","tag-leon-schreiber","tag-peter-thiel","tag-reon-barnard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816425"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816494,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816425\/revisions\/816494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}