You South Africa – 08 August 2019

y wanted me to pay $6 000

about R56 000) for my proto-

didn’t even earn a quarter of

s Portia, who was a corporate

chnician for a telecommuni-

ompany at the time.

refused to give up on her

2014 she went to the Union

n Pretoria, collected email ad-

ministerial personal assistants

d allof them, requesting fund-

s bowled over to receive a re-

mthe department of science

nology a day later, referring

heTechnology Innovation

TIA),which supports techno-

ovation.

months after I sent my appli-

heTIA, I received R1 million

theTIA, Portia met engineers

stsat Vaal University of Tech-

o turned her initially complex

a simple, low-tech product.

ypewas ready in 2016.

henpartnered with lawyer

Chellan (25) and together they

ompany, PRD Logical Solu-

roduce the seat.

year it got a welcome boost

rmof R5 million funding

ndustrial Development Cor-

They’re now manufacturing

orfield testing.

f scientific thought goes into

tionof each chair.

y seat can be customised ac-

g tothe person’s usage, be-

your spine, weight and height

er– so all of that is taken into

sideration,” Portia explains.

existing seat of a wheelchair

moved and replaced perma-

with The Para-Tube, which

s sosimple, Portia says, that

doit themselves.

rethe seats can go into mass

they need approval from the

anBureau of Standards and

the South African Medical Council.

Once that happens, they’ll be able to

start selling their product locally and in-

ternationally. Portia says they plan to

launch in January.

 H

ER invention is all the more

remarkable when you con-

sider what was going on in

her private life while she was

trying to get it off the ground.

During the initial stages of

the development Portia lived with her

mother, Anna, a domestic worker, on the

property of her employer, Neelavathy

Kolapen, in Lenasia, Johannesburg.

Portia was close to Neelavathy and re-

garded her as her honorary grand mother

• she was the one who helped lift her to
  use the loo when she was confined to a
  wheelchair. So she was devastated in
  2014 when Neelavathy died a few months
  after having hip-replacement surgery.
  In 2017 there was more tragedy when
  Portia’s mom lost her battle with cancer.
  While her mother was fighting the dis-
  ease, Portia quit her job to concentrate
  on developing The Para-Tube. But as her
  quest to get the chair into development
  intensified she had to make a lot of sac-
  rifices. She even slept under a tree next
  to a police station on one occasion in or-
  der to be early for a meeting the next day.
  When she received her grant things
  got easier on the financial front; she re-
  cently moved into a new two-bedroom
  home in Centurion, after having lived
  with her girlfriend Tazlynn Adams (23)
  and her family for two years.
  But she hasn’t forgotten how it feels to
  struggle and have people ridicule her be-
  cause of her invention. “I know the feel-
  ing of being laughed at,” she says. “People
  even called it the shit toilet.”
  But now, after almost nine years of
  persistence, she’s having the last laugh.
  Her innovative product has earned her
  multiple awards and may change many
  lives. S


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you.co.za 8 AUGUST 2019 | (^89)