Boffins beat cold-shower blues with hot gadget
A COLONIAL legacy of freezing boarding-school showers was too much for two youngsters from Welkom, who invented a portable shower to stay warm.
The brainwave earned them a national award, and they have now set up their own company to develop their product.
Steamed up about being last in the shower queue at Lawhill Maritime Centre in Cape Town, Thami Hoza and Bokamoso “BK” Molale had a bright idea — heat their own water before heading to the shower.
They are now forging ahead with help from an industrial designer and a business mentor, with a view to selling their “hot nozzle” globally.
They attribute their success to a cold Cape Town winter: “As juniors in school, in everything we did, we were always last and as a result always showered with cold water,” Hoza said.
The childhood friends — who met at high school in Welkom and moved to Cape Town together in 2014 — said the “lightbulb moment” came shortly after returning to boarding school from a holiday.
“We thought, ag man, now we are back to cold water in the morning. But then we realised that this was something affecting us that we could try and solve,” Hoza said.
They used an innovation competition to springboard their idea, and discovered a gap in the shower market. “We found out that quite a lot of people are facing this [cold shower] problem,” said Molale. “We are now looking at places like mines, or for people for whom hot show- ers are a luxury. The idea is to provide a universal solution for anybody to make use of.”
The Hot Nozzle attaches to a normal shower head and diverts the normal water flow into a portable, battery-operated device where water is heated with an element — much like a kettle. A timer limits shower length, saving energy and water.
The students’ close friendship inspired much more than high hopes for their company, HN Innovate. By teaming up, the roommates also excelled at their studies, both achieving eight distinctions in their matric exams last year.
“We formed this kind of working relationship,” said Hoza, who spent years growing up with his grandmother in Oppenheimer Park, outside Welkom. He and Molale are now first-year students at the University of Cape Town, studying actuarial science and medicine respectively.
Lawhill Maritime Centre head Debbie Owen said the pair’s success was an inspiration. “Their success should show other youth from disadvantaged circumstances that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is where you’re going and how important it is to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way.” CLEANING UP: Thami Hoza, left, and Bokamoso ‘BK’ Molale both achieved eight distinctions
We thought, ag man, now we are back to cold water in the morning