Fact Check: Did Elon Musk leave South Africa to avoid mandatory military service?

WASHINGTON, DC: Elon Musk's past is back under the microscope—this time for skipping out on mandatory military service in apartheid-era South Africa.

The billionaire—who now sits at the helm of everything from Tesla to SpaceX and even President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—is catching heat for his role in recent Veterans Affairs (VA) cuts.

Now, critics are bringing up his history with military service—or rather his avoidance of it.

Elon Musk called a "draft dodger"

The backlash gained traction on X (formerly Twitter) when a user pointed out Elon Musk’s past, responding to a post by X's AI chatbot Grok.

"Elon Musk is a draft dodger, according to Grok!" they wrote. "My brother spent a year in a South African prison as a conscientious objector—eating worm-infested porridge—against apartheid when he was conscripted. Who is Elon Musk to criticize any veteran?"

But Musk himself has openly admitted he left South Africa in part to dodge conscription because he wasn’t about to fight for an apartheid government, Snopes confirmed.

In a 2013 interview with actor Rainn Wilson, Musk made no effort to hide his decision to bail before the draft could get him.

"You grew up in South Africa. [...] You were in the army there?" Wilson asked.

"No. I left at 17. Well, in part, in order to avoid conscription in the army," Musk revealed.

"Oh, you left so you didn’t have to deal with the army," Wilson continued.

"You know, spending two years suppressing Black people doesn’t seem to be a great use of time," the billionaire quipped.

"I think that’s the worst use of any human being’s time," Wilson agreed.

The conversation takes place at the 1:34 mark:

Elon Musk's brief college stint before leaving

While Elon Musk’s go-to story is that he was focused on getting to America and used Canada as a stepping stone (thanks to his Canadian mother), journalist Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" paints a slightly different picture.

Before heading to North America, Musk killed time at the University of Pretoria for five months.

Vance writes: "At 17, Musk left South Africa for Canada. He has recounted this journey quite often in the press and typically leans on two descriptions of the motivation for his flight. The short version is that Musk wanted to get to the United States as quickly as possible and could use Canada as a pit stop via his Canadian ancestry. The second go-to story that Musk relies on has more of a social conscience. South Africa required military service at the time. Musk wanted to avoid joining the military, he has said, because it would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime."

The author continued: "What rarely gets mentioned is that Musk attended the University of Pretoria for five months before heading off on his grand adventure. He began pursuing physics and engineering but put lackluster effort into the work and soon dropped out of school. Musk characterized the time at university as just something to do while he awaited his Canadian documentation."

"In addition to being an inconsequential part of his life, Musk lazing through school to avoid South Africa's required military service rather undermines the tale of a brooding, adventurous youth that he likes to tell, which is likely why the stint at the University of Pretoria never seems to come up," Vance added.

How did military conscription work in South Africa?

For context, back in 1967, South Africa required all white men over 16 to complete nine months of mandatory military service. By 1977, the requirement jumped to two years—plus 30 extra days of service every year for the next eight years.

The only way out was deferrals for school or university.

That’s where Musk saw the opportunity. He hung around at the University of Pretoria just long enough to buy himself time before he could make his escape to Canada.

By 1989, Musk had officially left South Africa and was enrolled in college in Canada, never looking back.