Great South Africans
Tesla
Every now and then I read something about a great new invention and very often you see that the brain behind it all is a South African brain. I would like to see how many of the real great inventions and achievements have been made possible by South Africans or ex-South Africans.
If you know of such people please tell us about it.
What also amazes me is that these people often grew up in a small town in South Africa.
PLEASE do not tell us about political achievements, I am only interested in inventions, pioneering work or great international businesses
Here are some of these I can think off so far:
Elon Musk
Elon is a Former Pretoria Boys High pupil. He is the founder of Tesla Motors in America. The Tesla is one of the most astounding electrical cars. It is an electrical sports car which can do 0-100 in 3.9 seconds and go almost 400km per charge. You can get more info on the Tesla at http://www.teslamotors.com/ and read the article at www.wheels24.co.za
At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk you will see that Elon Musk’s company x.com was also the founder of PayPal, one of the world’s largest payment processors on the Internet.
Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray grew up in a motor racing milieu in Durban, South Africa – his father was a motorcycle racer and later prepared racing cars. Gordon studied mechanical engineering at Natal Technical College. From 1991-2004 Murray headed up the off-shoot McLaren Cars team to design road-going supercars: the McLaren F1 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. Murray is currently developing the T27 Electric car. It will be a small electric powered town car.
Keith Helfet
Keith Helfet became the chief designer for Jaguar at some stage. He now also designed South Africa’s first electric car, The Joule, which is said to go into production in 2011.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Helfet
Prof Chris Barnard
Prof Barnard do not any introduction. Barnard performed the world’s first human heart transplant operation on 3 December 1967. Chris Barnard was born in Beaufort West in the Karoo.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Barnard
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark was born in Welkom in the Free State.
He created Thawte which was originally run from his parents’ garage.
In 1999 VeriSign acquired Thawte in a stock purchase from Shuttleworth for US$575 million
Shuttleworth gained worldwide fame on 25 April 2002 as the second self-funded spaceflight participant.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth
Ferdinand Chauvier
He developed the Kreepy Krauly in Spirings on the East Rand in 1974. One of South Africa’s most successful inventions to date.
Dr Allan Cormack
He develop the CAT Scan (computerized Axial Tomography) together with Sir Godfrey Hounsfield at the Tufts University in the UK. The were awarded a nobel Prize in 1979.
George Pratley
This Krugersdorp engineer developed Pratley Putty on the West Rand. Pratley Putty landed on the moon in 1969 when it was used to patch certain parts of the Eagle landing craft during the Aplollo XI mission.
Henri Johnson
He developed the first ever speed gun which was used to measure bowling speed in cricket. It was introduced to cricket in 1999 during the world cup cricket. He is from Somerset West.
Erci Merrifield
Engineer from East London developed the massive 20 ton concrete blocks (dolosse) used to protect shorelines and ports.
Marius Kloppers
Marius Kloppers is the head of BHP Billiton, the world’s top miner. Kloppers worked in petrochemicals at Sasol and materials research with Mintek in South Africa. Following completion of his MBA at INSEAD, he then worked with management consultants McKinsey & Co in Netherlands before joining Billiton in 1993. In 2007, at the age of 44, he was appointed CEO of the largest resource company in the world, BHP Billiton. He officially assumed the position of CEO on 1 October 2007.
Patrice Motsepe
Aside from the Rupert and Oppenheimer families only one other South African has made the Forbes billionaires list, Patric Motsepe . Patrice, a Mining magnate from Soweto is also South Africa’s first black bilionaire.
Kerr Neilson
Kerr Neilson has been referred to as Australia’s answer to Warren Buffet. This South African born fund manager started as a stock broker in London and later moved to Autralia. His company specialises in international equities and manages $22billion (USD). Neilson’s personal wealth is estimated by The Australian Financial Review at $3.5 billion making him one of Australia’s richest men.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
He was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor. Best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.
Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State on 3 January 1892 . At age three his father died and his mother moved back to England with the boys.
Neil van Schalkwyk
The first man to mass produce the Vuvuzela. The Vuvuzela is the idiotic mono tone instrument which is about to ruin the 2010 World Cup Football in South Africa.
General | Pieter | April 6, 2009
elon musk, great, invention, joule, keith helfet, south africa, tesla
why band vuvuzelas?
i was enjoying vuvuzelas since you people complained. you guys spoil things for people who actually enjoy things. who cares what the americans or british say. dont spoil peoples fun for stupid reasons
That is the same guy who founded the Tesla Electric Vehicle, see the first guy in the list
There is also Elon Musk founder of Paypal.