This petrol pump guy sings Handel surprisingly beautifully

12 August 2016, 14:35 | Updated: 12 August 2016, 14:50

A video of Mthetheleli Gxoyiya singing Handel at a filling station has turned the petrol pump attendant into a celebrity in South Africa.

Mthetheleli Gxoyiya had to give up his pursuit of a career in music when he failed his high school exams.

But while Gxoyiya is unlikely to grace the stage of an opera house in the immediate future, he has an adoring audience in the small town of Cradock in South Africa’s semi-desert Karoo.

After the video below of him singing Handel’s Where’er You Walk came to light, Gxoyiya told Times Live that people come to his petrol station from far and wide to hear him sing – and presumably fill their tanks.

“My favourite artist is the one and only Pavarotti,” he says. “I love to sing compositions of Mozart also.

“I would love to continue with doing music. I want to be someone that will teach young people that opera is a career for the people.”