Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Top ideas straight out of South Africa
SUE SEGAR takes a look at some of the 100 local people, good ideas and inventions that made it into a new coffee-table book
WHAT do the Kreepy Krauly, Pratley Putty, the Consol Solar Jar, the Lodox and the dolos all have in common?
Well, they come out of South Africa, for a start, and they are all listed as “stellar local inventions that have changed the way the world operates”.
And they are all cited in the recently published coffee-table book 100 Good Ideas – Celebrating 20 Years of Democracy by Ashraf Jamal and Brendon Bell-Roberts.
The wind-up radio, makarapas and vuvuzelas, the Square Kilometre Array Project, and even the Mother City Queer Project are further examples of great ideas to come out of South Africa. As are Kwaito music, Bitterkomix, Isidingo, Nando’s and Die Antwoord.
Also uniquely South African is the Zip-Zap Circus, established in Cape Town in 1992 to work with children from all backgrounds and to help them “dare to dream”.
Zip-Zap has inspired governments and education ministries around the world.
Then there’s the Cape Townbased Handspring Puppet Company, made world-famous for its puppets for the acclaimed show War Horse, for which they designed life-sized horse puppets controlled by three actors.
Our country can also lay claim to ideas like the inimitable Reclaim Camissa Project, aimed at reclaiming the sweet waters of the natural dual water system flowing beneath the city of Cape Town, and the marathon that runners across the globe aspire to complete at least once in their lifetime, the Two Oceans ultramarathon.
Then there are such diverse ideas as the Wonderbox, the Design Indaba and the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK).
The South African flag – created by State Herald Frederick Brownell, just in time for the 1994 elections in 1994 – is the first good idea cited in the book, and is followed by the Constitution of South Africa, the charter which ensures that we will never return to our brutal past.
Vilakazi Street in Orlando West, where the Freedom Charter was conceived and drafted in 1955, is listed at number three.
The National Planning Commission, along with its founding director Trevor Manuel, is also listed as one of the country’s very good ideas.
100 Good Ideas, which was one of the flagship projects endorsed by the World Design Capital 2014 committee, includes content and commentary selected by more than 50 South African thought leaders across a range of sectors.
The book, which focuses on sustainability, creativity and positive change, was introduced by BellRoberts Publishing as its World Design Capital project and has been met with wide acclaim.
It is inspiring to be reminded that Pratley Putty – which was used in 1969 to hold bits of the Apollo XI mission’s Eagle landing craft together – was invented in the 1960s by George Pratley from Krugersdorp when he was trying to find a glue to hold the components of his electrical box together.
“This goo with remarkable binding power was even used to stall the cracking in a main support of the Golden Gate Bridge which spans San Francisco Bay in California,” say the authors.
Similarly, the Kreepy Krauly, that inimitable automated pool cleaner that quietly collects debris from swimming pools, came about because of Ferdinand Chauvier, a hydraulics engineer who came here from the Belgian Congo in 1951.
Realising that a vacuum cleaner of this type could change the lives of pool owners, he introduced the Kreepy Krauly in 1974.
Then there’s the one-litre Consol Classic preserve jar which, in the words of the authors, has received a “makeover that has taken the world by storm”.
“Now, instead of fig jam, the jars house LED lights, powered by sunlight harnessed through solar paneling fitted to the lid. The appeal of the jar crosses the social and cultural spectrum, servicing the many people across Africa in need of cheap and effective electricity supply, as well as outdoor camping types, décor stylists and wedding planners.”
For those who don’t know what the Lodox is, it is an X-ray machine that can scan a patient’s body in 13 seconds.
“From a highly efficient surveillance tool, the X-ray machine has found pride of place in public hospitals across South Africa and internationally.”
And then there’s the dolos, an unpatented but uniquely South African creation, worth millions, which is a marine buffer or “flexible dyke” that works by dissipating the power of the ocean without resisting it. The 3D concrete pod, which is most effective when interlocked with another dolos, was the inspiration of East London harbour engineer Eric Merrifield, who realised that oceanic pressure could be stilled if the dolos “rocks and rolls” with the sea.
Nobel Laureates who, with their own good ideas, attained world recognition include Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former presidents FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, to whom the book is dedicated.
Local legends named in the book include the musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo, David Kramer, Taliep Petersen and Johnny Clegg, cartoonist Zapiro, playwright Athol Fugard and satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys.
Among the list of activists, each of whom embodies an idea with which to take on the establishment, is Greenpeace executive director and “incurable optimist, s***-stirrer and botherator”, Kumi Naidoo. Naidoo is the first African director of the global organisation that uses direct action and civil disobedience to take on corporate abuse and bad governance.
As Naidoo puts it: “Growing up in apartheid South Africa, being jailed at the age of 15, and finally bringing change proved to me that even the most brutal regimes and systems can be changed for the better.
“Nothing is impossible.”
Other activists and public interest mobilisers listed in the book are the Right2Know Campaign – which fights for citizens’ rights to information – the Educational Rights organisation Section 27, the Legal Resource Centre and the organisation Sustain Our Africa, which promotes sustainable development initiatives in Africa.
Other listed activists include former Cosatu general-secretary Jay Naidoo, who is now a civil society activist, as well as HIV/Aids activist and TAC co-founder Zackie Achmat.
No list would be complete without mention of Laugh it Off ’s Justin Nurse, he of the cheeky Tshirts, an activist in his own right, who is probably best known for his victory over SABMiller in a legal battle for converting “Black Label” to “Black Labour”.
No list of great ideas would be complete without afronauts Mark Shuttleworth, Elon Musk, Herman Heunis and Jacques Blom.
Pretoria-born Musk, who designed the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit and who founded the Musk Foundation, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World last year.
A “space tourist” and online banking billionaire, Shuttleworth set up the Shuttleworth Foundation as “an experiment in open philanthropy” that funds innovative change.
Then there is the prototype vehicle launched by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) aimed at giving disabled people easier mobility.
Artists who have contributed to the country’s great ideas include drum and coffin-maker Samson Mudzunga, William Kentridge, Norman Catherine and Marlene Dumas, who is now one of South Africa’s top-earning artists.
Jane Alexander of Butcher Boys fame, graffiti artist Faith47, and sculptor Noria Mabasa also feature as highly acclaimed people with great ideas.
Among the renowned fiction authors to come are K Sello Duiker, the Australia-based JM Coetzee, and Lauren Beukes (recently shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize for 2014).
Comedians too contribute to the body of national ideas: What would we be without the likes of Trevor Noah and Loyisa Gola?
The list of inspiring South Africans is a valuable addition to any home or office. Which other country can boast the likes of music composer Neo Muyanga, the Soweto Gospel Choir, clothes designer Marianne Fassler, and the event Afrikaburn?
It is not surprising that the Latin phrase ex Africa semper aliquid novi (From Africa always something new) features at the end of this book. The country’s immense challenges, paired with its diversity, have given rise to some of the most creative ideas in the world. And that is something to celebrate.