INVENTION IS DOYOYO’S DOMAIN
Background no yardstick to your fate
PROFESSOR Mulalo Doyoyo is an engineer and inventor of note.
Growing up in the dusty streets of Vondwe village outside Thohoyandou in Venda, he dreamt of becoming a lawyer or doctor but changed his mind when he realised he could create more jobs as an engineer.
His journey to success is proof that one’s background does not define their future.
Doyoyo has lived in the US for about 20 years studying and lecturing at some of the world’s top universities where he invented, among others, cenocell – a patented concrete material that is manufactured without the addition of cement, which is now used globally.
He founded his manufacturing plant in Johannesburg in 2015, where he employs 10 youths who are boilermakers.
His job includes manufacturing machines and testing them on site before they are distributed to customers. At his Johannesburg plant, Doyoyo has also invented a builder’s paint that has since been certified. The paint is currently being manufactured in Cape Town and distributed nationally.
Doyoyo also designed and manufactured Ecocast brick-making machines that save water, energy, electricity and use less cement. The machine was recently made available on the market.
One of the innovations he is proud of is a solar toilet system that uses less water and uses environmentally-friendly technology.
“A single hold uses about 32 000 litres of water a year but with this innovation, only 600 litres of water is used. The invention is like a [small] waste plant. The waste is consumed by a bacteria we put in the water. The toilets are powered by solar panels for flushing and recycling the waste,” he said.
Anglo American awarded him a scholarship to read for a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Cape Town after matriculating at Mbilwi Secondary School in 1988. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
He was also awarded a scholarship to study for another degree in engineering at Brown University in Rhode Island, US, where he also received his doctorate.
Doyoyo continued to enrol for advanced studies in engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), also in the US, where he also lectured engineering students for about six years.
After MIT, he went on to lecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta before returning to SA.
“I am captured by the challenges involved in discovering things that were not there before. Creating new things excites me. It is not easy for people to trust new innovations, but I have the support of many companies,” he said.
Doyoyo believe industrialisation would take SA to greater heights.
“My dream is to see SA become one of the world’s big five countries economically. That can only be achieved through industrialisation. We have a lot of natural resources,” he said.