Gr 12 learner builds petrol car from recycled materials
Thompho Ravele says his skills and knowledge to design started when he designed cars using wire.
LIMPOPO – A hardworking guy and committed young engineer, Thompho Ravele from Maebani Ha Kutama outside Thohoyandou recently designed his own petrol car using discarded scrap materials.
The Gr 12 learner from Luvhivhini Secondary School told CV that his skills and knowledge to design started at an early age when he designed cars using wire and in 2017 while in Gr 10 he was introduced to Eskom Science Expo Competition.
Ravele said he did not hesitate to enter the competition and designed a truck that loads and unloads items.
“The truck was made out of cable wires, recycled soft drink cans, bottles and also CD-ROM motors,” he explained.
In 2018, he upgraded the truck with different features and it was named the multi-functional truck that does it all in one. “When I designed the multi-functional truck, it was with the purpose to reduce the cost that sub-contractors face when they construct roads where they hire different machinery such as TLBs and graders but the multi-functional truck had all of this in one,” said Ravele. His latest project was started in early January this year when he designed a car that uses petrol and can travel at a speed of 40 km/h.
Ravele said, “it was not easy, I used different recycled materials such as zinc, a generator, computer motherboard, motors (pull and clutch) and also the motor bike wheels for the car to move.”
The young emerging and talented engineer’s dream is to have his own company as an engineer or an innovator who creates and designs cars for his country so that the country need not import cars from other countries. He has appealed to anyone willing to help, to help fund his ventures.
