Having no job is no problem to tinkerer, he just builds cars
Unemployed carpenter Simon Skhosana is driving with his two-year-old son, Siyabonga, in a pedal car he built from scrap material and bicycles.
The car, one of many such marvels he has created since losing his job more than a decade ago, has turned the 50-year-old father of two into a sensation in his home village of Moloto in the former KwaNdebele area, north east of Pretoria.
“I can take my children to school when it rains or when it is extremely cold. There was a time when my boy had to go to KwaMhlanga hospital [about 10kms away] for a check-up, but I did not have money for transport. So I put him and my wife on the back seat and off we went,” he said proudly.
Skhosana uses two chains to pedal the car, which has 11 gears, a foot brake, steering wheel made from a bicycle wheel, side and rear view mirrors and a manually operated windshield wiper.
He uses locks to secure the doors and when he has luggage to haul, he hooks up a home-made trailer.
Though he is the pride of his unemployed 30-year-old wife, Matholwane and the community, not everybody is happy with the pedal car.
“Traffic cops give me a hard time though I drive in the yellow line. They stop me and demand that I take ‘this thing’ off the road, but I reason with them that then they must take all bicycles off the road because it is just a bicycle. Some joke, saying I must get a driver’s licence.”
It all started when the softspoken father lost his job as a welder and carpenter in 2008. Instead of wallowing in selfpity, he started fixing bicycles and building wire toy cars which he sells along Moloto Road.
Skhosana also does welding and carpentry jobs in the community in order to survive. Not one to pass discarded scrap material, he designed a pedal car.
“This is my third car. The first one was a bakkie and I used it to carry my tools when I got a carpentry or welding job, but I was not happy with it. I struggled to get proper material and most of the body was built out of wood.”
Skhosana says he could sell the pedal cars if he had a prop- er workshop and materials.
Last year, he built a twoseater baby stroller which he modelled into a car and sold for R350.