Think it, Make it!
That is the motto of the Ekurhuleni fabrication laboratory, established by the metro for young inventors to design and build anything imaginable that can be used and improved into products for entrepreneurial purposes.
Gift Lubele is one of the creative minds and fledgling entrepreneurs who attended the three-day designing and innovation workshop, held from September 5 to 7.
He is the overall winner of the 2015 Teenpreneur competition, for his smart plastic holder, designed at the Tembisa fabrication lab, to lessen the discomfort and pain of holding heavy shopping bags.
“I used to come to the facility to play around with the flexible computer-controlled tools, and to learn more about the various materials used,” said Lubele.
“Little did I know that I would one day create something that is marketable and out of which I can make a living.”
Lubele, who has received an order to create 500 smart plastic holders as corporate gifts, will be exhibiting his prototype at the up-coming Innovation Summit, to be held from September 21 to 24, at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, in Boksburg.
The summit is a platform where young, upcoming designers will exhibit their products to entrepreneurs, stakeholders, business owners and consumers, as well as having an opportunity to interact with established creators and potential investors.
Audrey Verhaeghe, the chairman of the Innovation Summit, encouraged residents at the workshops to utilise the Ekurhuleni fabrication labs and make room to fail and learn until they design marketable prototypes.
The metro encourages new thinking in its community.
Residents can visit one of its three fabrication labs, in Tembisa, Thokoza or Tsakane.
Operating hours are Monday to Friday from 8.15am to 3.30pm.
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