Rural communities in South Africa, more especially the impoverished villages in Musina, could have access to cheap energy, thanks to young and upcoming scientist Dewald le Roux.

Young le Roux from Eric Louw High School in Musina has invented a windmill, which is affordable and suitable for far-flung areas, that could produce energy for domestic use and generation of water. Le Roux was one of the participants in the Eskom-Capricorn Young Scientist Expo. He unveiled his invention to judges at the Thohoyandou Town Hall last week.

This year’s occasion was attended by Ms Priscilla Moodley, the national manager of the programme, who watched all the proceedings with keen interest. Banu Sankaran, secretary of the competition, said the project was run on an annual basis and had been running for the past 30 years, with electricity company Eskom being the main sponsor.

The competition aims to unearth hidden talents from learners at primary- and secondary-school level. She said there was a lot of talent that was hidden in rural learners which needed to be nurtured and it was through such initiatives that they hoped to encourage the learners to study the sciences. She said the learners had worked hard on their projects since the beginning of the year and it was now time for them to showcase what they had to offer.

“We are not ashamed to tell the outside world that we are succeeding in our mission to unearth raw talent. Only last year, two of our products managed to get bursaries worth R25 000, while one represented our country in Reunion. This is no mean achievement and we are really proud,” she said.

She said the level of participation had increased over the years, which clearly showed that more and more learners were developing an interest in the sciences. “We are very hopeful that the ones who won today will represent us well in the national competition and besides, we are looking forward to their projects´ giving the much-needed solutions to challenges like global warming and energy recycling, “she said.

In his presentation, young scientist Dewald Le Roux said he had done research and found that most rural communities did not have electricity. He said he decided to come up with a solution for them to get cheap electricity that could be used domestically, and also to provide water for animals as many of the communities made their livelihood from animals. “I just wish that this project is given a chance as many rural communities could benefit and afford this cheap energy."