Darren and Justin Oates are among the 304 239 graduates of the University of Pretoria (UP). Being alumni makes the twins, mechanical engineering graduates of the class of 2019, very proud – but that’s where any attempt to group them with others stops.

Nothing about the Oates brothers, 25, fits a mould. And they enjoy that, negating any suggestion they might have chosen UP because it was a natural progression from attending Afrikaans Boys’ High School (Affies) in Pretoria. They pride themselves on being independent thinkers who don’t choose obvious paths, and are happy as long as it leads to success.

“It doesn't matter what you do in life and what I end up doing (but) I wouldn’t like being average,” said Justin.

There is little chance of that. Consider their career choices.

They are the founding executive directors of a company, Gaztron, that converts vehicles to run on gas; they take part in competitive motorsports and although they maintain all three take precedence and none are a side-hustle the enterprise that is taking over most of their time is their band, Alter Ego. The twins signed a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment Africa, which gives them the exclusive right to distribute Alter Ego’s music, particularly their hot property, the album #SkreeNetSag, released in mid-March.

“All of them are fulltime but we are managing,” said Justin, clearly exhilarated by their hectic schedule as he rattles off how they had filmed a music video until 11pm the previous night, were up at 5am to train with a boxing coach to perfect their moves for another music video to be filmed that weekend, and were dashing off to Rustenburg the next day to meet with mining companies about Gaztron.

With this multifaceted lifestyle, it is no surprise that they broke from the norm with their reaction to the pandemic too. “Lockdown brought a lot of inspiration,” said Justin. They had met their producer, Denholm Harding of South Africa’s hit rock band Just Jinger, in February 2020, a month before COVID-19 hit. When hard lockdown was introduced a month later, Darren said they “had time to play around at home, get recording software” and make music.

Harding is exuberant about their collaboration: “I had the great pleasure of sculpting this collection of brilliant songs with these gents during lockdown,” he posted on Facebook, saying Alter Ego’s music was “a bold alternative to add to the rich and vast catalogue of timeless Afrikaans music’’.

With such diverse interests, it’s no wonder Justin and Darren didn’t know what career path to follow. They were all set to study actuarial science at UP, when suddenly they had second thoughts.  “We thought, ‘maybe we should just reconsider what we need to do’,” said Justin.  And just like that, they found themselves in a gap year.

They used the break to focus on motorsports and do a spate of job shadowing of different professions. “We also composed a lot of songs in that year, many of the songs that are on the album. And we worked on race cars, just to get a bit of technical understanding, because when you are a driver it's important to understand the dynamics of your vehicles, so you know how to give your team feedback,” said Justin.

Their final choice of engineering was not their first one.  Their dad, Cecil, had studied engineering and “we went to his work and had a look at what's happening there. And it didn't look very interesting, to be honest,” said Justin.

“So we said we are going to do anything except engineering,” chipped in Darren. “But, at the end of the day, we decided that’s what we wanted to do.”

They are grateful they chose UP. “As far as I know UP is the best in the country for engineering,” said Darren, raving about the ultra-modern engineering facilities, which he said stood out even among the other disciplines on campus.

“Those little boardrooms in the Study Centre were really cool, and a good working environment too," said Justin, remembering how they were kicked out a few times for sneaking food into these pristine rooms. “We always push the boundaries,” he said, laughing.

They have fond memories of the Serenade a cappella campus competition. They went to watch every year although ironically, considering they are now professional singers, never took part.

And the one moment they will never forget is when a lecturer who couldn’t find the blackboard duster, took off his formal jacket and used it to wipe the board.  As amusing as it was, Darren said: “I really respected him for doing that; he was so dedicated”.

The twins have many of the same experiences because almost everything in their lives is a carbon copy of each other’s. Perhaps they are indeed each other’s alter ego, or second self. One is 2cm taller than the other but they weigh the same, and took the same school subjects – including music, which they said was the most work.

Even though not genetically identical, they look so similar that at first it’s almost impossible to distinguish between them, possibly because their hair is styled the same. On a recent TV appearance, they even dressed the same, just with different colour trainers. They swear it’s not a marketing ploy but merely their taste. “We just like it,” is Justin’s take on it. “We were born like this,” is Darren’s verdict. “We don’t necessarily try to look the same, we just have the same interests,” said Justin.

Justin maintains Darren’s voice is more throatier, his slightly more nasal, and says “the one thing that distinguishes us a little bit, and that's in all regards - he (Darren) is a little bit more aggressive, but not as in wanting to fight, whereas I'm a little bit more calm and calculated. I would be more open-minded in the studio to accepting and hearing what the producer, Denholm, has to say whereas Darren would set in his head on something and then he's not going to back off.”

They were very touched to be able to give back to UP when a few final-year engineering students did their final-year projects on the Oates twins’ company, Gaztron, last year. This is the kind of contribution that makes being alumni of UP, one of Africa’s top universities, so rewarding.