Yes, Musk left South Africa in part to avoid compulsory military service – Snopes.com

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In early 2025, Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) implemented cuts in the Veterans Affairs (VA) agency, leading to disruptions and widespread criticism from military veterans. A number of posts highlighted a detail from Musk’s past growing up in South Africa, calling him a “draft dodger,” a term for individuals who evade military conscription.  
An X user quoted Grok, an AI chatbot on X, stating: “Elon Musk is a draft dodger according to Grok! 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?”
 
(X user @hissgoescobra)
Musk himself has admitted on more than one occasion that he left South Africa in part to avoid compulsory military service, saying he would not fight for an apartheid state. We thus rate this claim as true.
For example, in a 2013 interview with actor Rainn Wilson, Musk describes evading the military draft:
WILSON: You grew up in South Africa. […] You were in the army there?
MUSK: No. I left at 17. Well, in part, in order to avoid conscription in the army.
WILSON: Oh, you left so you didn’t have to deal with the army.
MUSK: You know, spending two years suppressing Black people doesn’t seem to be a great use of time.
WILSON: I think that’s the worst use of any human being’s time. […] Elon Musk, draft dodger!
The exchange takes place at the 1:34 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMkwsSAIAfY&list=PLzvRx_johoA_7OmfoA_wZfh3tXl-jqvnD
Journalist Ashlee Vance reported that before leaving the country, Elon Musk had been “lazing” through school to avoid the army before dropping out. In the 2015 biography “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” Vance wrote (emphasis, ours):
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.
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.
In 1967, South Africa required all white men over the age of 16 to participate in compulsory military service for nine months. The required service time increased in 1977 to two years and 30 days annually for eight years with deferments for those completing school or university. Military conscription was officially abolished in the 1990s with the end of the apartheid regime, and the creation of an integrated military.
Musk left South Africa in 1989 for college in Canada, where his mother held citizenship. 
“Compulsory Military Conscription.” University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, https://humanities.uct.ac.za/kaplan-centre/discover-our-web-exhibitions-green-and-sea-point-hebrew-congregation-its-origins-2010/compulsory-military-conscription. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Edlmann, Theresa. “The Lingering, Unspoken Pain of White Youth Who Fought for Apartheid.” The Conversation, 2 Sept. 2015, http://theconversation.com/the-lingering-unspoken-pain-of-white-youth-who-fought-for-apartheid-46218. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Elon Musk; Tesla, Space X, And The Quest For A Fantastic Future Rocky by Ashlee Vance. Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/ElonMuskTeslaSpaceX. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Rabin, Roni Caryn, and Nicholas Nehamas. “Chaos at the V.A.: Inside the DOGE Cuts Disrupting the Veterans Agency.” The New York Times, 9 Mar. 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/us/politics/veterans-affairs-doge-cuts.html. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Savage, Rachel. “The Making of Elon Musk: How Did His Childhood in Apartheid South Africa Shape Him?” The Guardian, 10 Mar. 2025. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/10/making-of-elon-musk-childhood-apartheid-south-africa. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Tesla’s Elon Musk Meets Rainn Wilson in the Metaphysical van Long before the Cybertruck Was a Thing. SoulPancake, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMkwsSAIAfY&list=PLzvRx_johoA_7OmfoA_wZfh3tXl-jqvnD. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
“Veterans Are Speaking out on the Trump Administration’s Plans to Cut the VA’s Budget.” AP News, 5 Mar. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/veterans-doge-va-trump-cuts-marines-opinions-370be785e1117ab0d82a58c95c639420. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
Nur Nasreen Ibrahim is a reporter with experience working in television, international news coverage, fact checking, and creative writing.
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