From Makaraba to Pletterpet

In the end of the 70's, the South African Alfred Baloyi was watching a football game when a beer bottle thrown by another supporter hit his head. He went home thinking about developing a festive helmet that coud protect his head. Mr. Baloyi grabbed a miners helmet, cut it out, painted and decorated it. Later on, he named it a "makarapa". Since then the makarapa (or makaraba) has become relatively popular in South Africa. However, Mr. Baloyi has never become rich for each makaraba is handmade and produced in a small scale. Heineken picked up his idea and "developed" the product pletterpet. For eight cans of Heineken beer you can get one pletterpet. For his participation on the film you can watch above, Mr. Baloyi received from Heineken a tip of only 25 thousand euros as a hommage for his invention. The pletterpet from Heineken is produced in large scale in factories in China.