Mr Musk is a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday threatened to cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly". The South Africa-born tech billionaire joined in the criticism asking on X why Ramaphosa had "openly racist ownership laws".

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to Elon Musk “on issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” the presidency announced on Tuesday.

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.