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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
A law firm office, a stone’s throw away from Rusape Central Business District houses a peculiar backroom. Things that happen in that tiny room are miles away from the core business occupying the rest of the yard.

At first glance, the small room looks like its walls were built to enclose scrap yard residuals. There is all manner of metals, plastics and wires.

It is organised chaos, as the owner describes it. Small as it is, the room has seen ideas come to life, it is a humble shed where 32-year-old innovator Vusani Mtetwa operates from.

A shop floor merchandiser during the day and a self-taught electrical engineer at night, Mtetwa is a man who lives, eats and breathes machines. Though single in matrimonial terms, the man says he is committed to his dream.

He says his calling involves mounting and dismantling of machines to solve human problems.

His latest creation, a touchless handwashing system created in response to Covid-19 concerns is a glimpse into what his hands can do.

“I dismantled a floodlight, took out censors. I attached the censors to a tap and hoisted bucket.

The censor operates in reaction to light, when someone moves their hand below the tap censors open a small valve that is there and water trickles. Once the hand is removed it closes,” Mtetwa said.

His day job gave him perspective on how some seemingly noble safety measures can easily go fatal.

“I observed people could infect each other through opening and closing taps as they wash hands. I decided to come up with a way that would not give people a false sense of security, while endangering them,” he said.

The creation, whose usefulness has only been enjoyed by a few privileged to grace Mtetwa’s humble workshop uses modest pieces of material. A bucket, a sensor, a tap and a bit of wiring.

Mtetwa deliberately took the approach saying there is potential for easy mass production.

“The total production cost for this unit was US$30. The larger percentage of the production bill came from buying floodlights, from which I removed the censor I used.

If I could get censors straight from the source, the production cost would be around US$10. The technology is simple it is just playing around with light as well as electromagnetics,” he said.

As the world prepares to live with Covid-19, there is going to be need for a low cost solution to hand hygiene. The Chipinge born innovator believes his idea is exactly what the proverbial doctor ordered.

The hand washing gizmo is not the first of his creations. As a self-taught engineer, he uses the internet to his advantage learning basics of how machines work and directing that knowledge to an identified need.

He came up with a chicken plucker.

All it needs is two minutes to pluck a chicken.

“Mashonaland East being a farming area, I saw that a lot of poultry farmers were struggling with plucking large numbers of chickens during the dressing process. I decided to produce a chicken plucker, it takes two minutes to pluck a single bird,” he said.

Of all his creations, the chicken plucker has been the most profitable as it is sustaining his passion.

“You connect the system to electricity, there are blades that turn 375 times per minute, the blades are responsible for scrapping the birds. As the birds are swivelled at a fast pace, you pour in water at over 65 degrees Celsius, this makes the feathers soft and they fall off on their own. The system accommodates two birds at a time,” Mtetwa explained.

He charges $10 per bird, which means when in use, he earns $20 every two minutes.

Proceeds from these chicken pluckers are what he uses to buy all other components he uses. The chicken plucker has also given Mtetwa a number of plaudits, in 2019 he was the third placed innovator in a nationwide competition run by CBZ.

Before devising a way to fund what makes his heart beat faster, he used to find himself at crossroads with family members as he used home appliances as component sources.

Mtetwa remembers how it all started, in 2002 when he drew the family’s ire after dismantling a radio to create a microphone.

“The whole family was livid because the radio was ruined, but I had put together a microphone, although the sound was static.

It was the proverbial light bulb which has culminated into the daring inventor he is.

If he could be in the same room as Daniel Chingoma there would strike a lot of familiar codes in conversation.

“In 2015, I built a helicopter, but abandoned the project without testing because I had been informed of the many formalities around seeing the project take off.

I ended up disassembling the whole thing,” said Mtetwa.

Mtetwa did his primary school at Nyagadza Primary School, O’ Level at Tuzuka Secondary School and his A ’Level at Rimbi High School.

Academically, he did not go beyond A’ Level.

Asked on whether or not he would consider enrolling for an engineering qualification, he chuckled before saying the horse has since bolted.

“I know enough to understand what needs to be done. I am working towards creating opportunities for other creators like me. I would like to run an engineering company.”

Alive to the journey that need to be traversed, Mtetwa is willing to build from the ground up.

He is not shy to knock on doors trying to sell his ideas.

“I am in the process of approaching supermarkets, the local council and the provincial leadership trying to sell them my idea. I have hope that the latest handwashing unit will have takers,” said Mtetwa.

He says there are phases where things do not move as fast as he prefers, but he does not give up as he draws inspiration from his;

“Passion to make things happen.”

President Mnangagwa called for home grown solutions in the fight against Covid-19, maybe ideas from youths like Mtetwa need attention as they could stand as answers to questions confronting the country.