You may want to refreshen your knowledge regarding South Africa in its apartheid days. I would confidently posit that Elon was more privileged than your average American at that time. Of course he may want/ has created a different picture of his young days.
Certain individuals may be have been more privileged, in South Africa, during Apartheid, presuming skin colour.
South Africa has not produced a thriving industrial or technological sector, though there have been individual advances in certain areas, notably medicine (heart transplants, yellow fever vaccine), and Mark Shuttleworth's Thawte, which left the country.
Musk would have been 23 at the time of the election of Nelson Mandella. Musk's youth certainly was under an Apartheid regime and would reflect the benefits of being a white male under that system. He'd already left for Canada some five years earlier, which might itself speak to your parent's observations.
