Elon Musk told News24 the prominence of this jock or rugby culture in some SA schools led people to behave like former Paralympian Oscar Pistorius.
“It is about whether they can play rugby or not… If boys grow up like that, they end up being like Oscar Pistorius who shoots his girlfriend, and shoots out of a car and at a restaurant. It starts at schools.”
Earlier Musk snr. said his son was once beaten up so badly in Grade 8 at the Bryanston High School that he “didn’t recognise him at Sandton Clinic”. Elon was in hospital for two weeks but the police did not want to do anything and the school even less.
“I laid a charge of assault, but the Randburg police declined to prosecute, saying it was just ‘skoolseuns wat rondspeel’ [schoolboys that are playing around]. The school itself was non-committal.” In his opinion schools did not take action against aggressive pupils because they were rugby stars.
“South Africa is seen as having a jock culture. It might produce intellectual people, but it is not an intellectual culture.”
Elon is the founder, chief executive and chief technology officer of aerospace company SpaceX, as well as the chief executive of electric motorcar company Tesla Motors. He was also a co-founder of online payment system PayPal.
