When most teenagers are playing soccer at the fields, taking a swim at the beach or lazing around in front of the television, Siphephelo Buthelezi (13) of eSikhawini is building helicopters and aeroplanes out of recycled materials.
Buthelezi of Mzingwenya Intermediate School recently passed grade 7 with outstanding results and is set to start high school next year.
The youngest of two says his favourite subject at school is technology.
‘He got a distinction,’ said his proud father.
On school holiday, Buthelezi collected cardboard boxes, wires, bottle caps; an AA sized battery and a small motor and in two days built an aeroplane out of these materials.
Just short of taking off from the runway, Buthelezi intricately adjusts the wires of ‘Jetter Plane – Place to Place’ as he calls it.
‘Last week I built a helicopter, that flew quite well,’ he said.
‘I want to be an aeronautical engineer when I grow up,’
‘Build them, not fly,’ he chuckled as he clarified.
