09/05/2026
Bronze medals come faster than factories for a 16-year-old's earring.
The earring exists as a prototype and Mphahlele says so herself. She is looking for investors, technical partners and funding to refine the earring and get it into production.
Limpopo's education MEC Polly Boshielo has asked publicly for exactly that money, so the earring can be made at scale.
What does the bronze medal actually prove? Judges in engineering-electronics tested the earring and rated the build at 16.
What it leaves open is the factory. A working photo trigger, a paired device and a police alert are three separate problems. A prototype earring solves each of them once, on a bench.
That bench is where most 16-year-old inventions stop.
Sources: ITWeb, Eskom Expo for Young Scientists
