Hon Chairperson, hon members and ladies and gentlemen, science and technology are rarely the first things one thinks of when one talks about our major challenges as a nation, and few people fully appreciate the toil and investment that go into the generation of knowledge, discovery and invention.
The National Development Plan, however, identifies the important role of science, technology and innovation in achieving our country's longer-term objectives. As many of you will recall, Minister Pandor appointed a high- level committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the South African National System of Innovation, Sansi. The committee's report, which was released last year, makes a number of useful recommendations, including that the Department of Science and Technology should strengthen its links with the private sector. I am pleased to report that we are making good progress in implementing a number of these recommendations.
Firstly, the department has secured R500 million over the next three years from the Economic Competitiveness Fund to strengthen innovation and research partnerships with industry. Secondly, an international expert committee has been appointed to develop a framework for a national integrated cyber infrastructure system. Thirdly, we are convening the first multistakeholder science, technology and innovation summit in July this year to strengthen co-ordination between government and the private sector. [Applause.]
Finally, also arising out of the committee's recommendations, all under Minister Pandor's leadership, I appointed a panel to conduct a review of the Technology Innovation Agency, TIA, earlier this year. The panel has completed its work and its report was presented to the newly appointed TIA board yesterday.
The total appropriation to the Department of Science and Technology for 2013-14 is R6,2 billion. About 92% goes to our science councils and agencies, as well as to other research institutions, including universities, which the department supports in various ways. The reason for this is simple: Our main mandate is to fund and direct research and human capital development in a strategic and co-ordinated manner.
The Department of Science and Technology has four main programmes. These programmes represent distinct but complementary ways of promoting Sansi and harnessing science and technology to benefit all South Africans. The Research, Development and Innovation programme is at the heart of our efforts to drive innovation in strategic areas. This programme focuses on space science, biotechnology, health innovation and energy.
The announcement made a year ago, that our country, together with eight other African partner countries, is to host the greatest portion of the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, radio telescope, was a massive acknowledgement of the capabilities of our scientists and engineers, and of the advances our country has made in science and technology. The SKA will be one of the biggest scientific projects the world has ever undertaken. [Applause.]
This year marks the start of the detailed design and preconstruction phase of the SKA project. The construction of the 64-dish MeerKAT has commenced and will be completed by 2016. On its own, the MeerKAT will be the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. When it is completed, the SKA, with its 3 000 dishes, will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world by far. [Applause.] We have been given almost R2 billion for the SKA project over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period and, since this is a global project, this investment will leverage significant international resources.
World-class science is already emanating from our KAT-7 precursor instrument. Local and international astronomers have used the instrument to observe repeating radio outbursts from a neutron star system known as Circinus X-1. Their results have just been accepted this week for publication in a prestigious journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. A global media release on this ground-breaking science coming out of South Africa has just been issued.
Maybe there is life out there, somewhere on another planet. We just don't know. However, what we do know is that the SKA will be able to pick up even the faintest of extraterrestrial signals and cast light on some of the mysteries of the universe. It therefore came as no surprise to us when the Director of SA's SKA Project, Dr Bernie Fanaroff, was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe for his excellent contributions to astronomy and for putting South Africa on the map with the SKA project. He is here with us today in the gallery. [Applause.]
Through the SA National Space Agency, we are further developing the country's capacity to design, build, maintain and possibly even launch satellites. As part of the four-country African Resource Management Constellation, South Africa has begun work on the first satellite. An amount of R272 million has been budgeted this year for this important project. This satellite will greatly enhance Africa's ability to monitor and manage its precious natural resources. A business rescue plan for the company Sunspace has been put in place, and the process of transferring the very rich capabilities and intellectual property into our satellite programme is continuing.
Turning to the work we are doing in energy, there are some exciting developments to report on. Hydrogen SA, HySA, Centres of Competence include the Centre for Catalysis Research at the University of Cape Town, the Infrastructure Centre at the North-West University and the Systems Centre of Competence at the University of the Western Cape, UWC. In February this year, the UWC centre, together with a local company, Melex Electrovehicles, unveiled the first hydrogen fuel cell battery-operated golf cart developed on South African soil. The range of the golf cart is almost doubled by the use of a hydrogen fuel cell. It is pollution free, virtually silent and can reach a speed of 50 kilometres per hour. [Applause.] Golfers out there should be very happy about this.
I am also very happy to report that a memorandum of understanding on the joint development of hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle platforms and technologies has been signed between the UWC, Coventry University and Microcab Industries Limited. The memorandum of understanding will see Microcab using HySA technologies, with the prospect of HySA becoming a major supplier to Microcab.
It is worth noting that even a modest increase in the global penetration of fuel cell-powered vehicles will result in a significant increase in the demand for platinum and will contribute to our target of meeting 25% of global catalyst demand by 2020. Our nation holds almost three-quarters of the world's known resources of platinum, so this will be a very significant development.
There are also huge opportunities in solar energy within our country. The Department of Science and Technology, working closely with the Department of Energy and the International Energy Agency, will finalise the Solar Energy Technology Road Map this year. The value of both solar and wind energy still needs to be unlocked, though, through more efficient and affordable energy storage technologies. Our main focus at this stage is on lithium-ion battery technologies. Some of the novel battery systems we are developing are based on manganese and, given that South Africa has 80% of the world's manganese reserves, this also represents a significant beneficiation opportunity. [Applause.]
By 2015, more than 2,5 million HIV-infected South Africans will need antiretroviral treatment, and it is therefore essential that we have a secure and affordable supply of antiretrovirals, ARVs. Cabinet has given the go-ahead for the Ketlaphela consortium, which was established as a joint venture between the Industrial Development Corporation and Pelchem. This consortium will now proceed with an open process to secure a technical and investment partner for the construction and operation of a facility for the local manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients for ARVs, as well as formulated tablets for government's ARV treatment programme. We will soon issue a request for information to start the process of finding such a partner. With pharmaceutical imports currently contributing substantially to our trade deficit, this mainly state-owned pharmaceutical company will be immensely important to the objectives of government's New Growth Path.
Local researchers and scientists in the area of health innovation are increasingly receiving recognition for their contributions, especially in respect of tuberculosis, TB, and HIV/Aids-related research. Two outstanding scientists received the Order of Mapungubwe at the National Orders ceremony last month: In the gallery is Prof Glenda Gray, who is going to stand up for you now, for her life-saving research in mother-to-child transmission of HIV. [Applause.] Prof Quarraisha Karim also received the award for her work in the field of HIV/Aids and TB research. Unfortunately, Prof Karim is not here, but her husband, Dr Slim Karim, is here with us today. [Applause.] He walks in his wife's shadow. [Laughter.] However, let me tell you, they are a formidable partnership.
Last month the University of Cape Town's Prof Valerie Mizrahi won the Grand Prix Christophe Mrieux prize for her TB research. We will hear more about Prof Mizrahi's research this evening when she makes a presentation during dinner.
I am pleased to report that our bio-economy strategy has been finalised and will soon be presented to Cabinet for approval. We have built capacity, which Minister Pandor is very happy about because she knows how we agonised about this one. We have built capacity and infrastructure, and we have developed value chains in the application of biotechnology to a range of areas: new diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics, improved crops and livestock, and cleaner and more efficient industries. The strategy will assist us in creating a world-class biotechnology-based system of innovation. Over the MTEF period, more than R400 million has been budgeted for the implementation of the strategy.
Towards the end of last year, the Technology Innovation Agency, TIA, in partnership with the Agricultural Research Council, the National Research Foundation, NRF, the University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort Biological Products and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, launched the Tshwane Animal Health Cluster. This initiative will enable the local animal health industry to develop and commercialise safe, effective and affordable animal health products and services for the benefit of our local livestock industry. The Tshwane Animal Health Cluster is currently funding a portfolio of no less than 29 investments in various animal diseases.
Our International Co-operation and Resources programme has been allocated R148 million for the year ahead. The primary purpose of this programme is to promote the exchange of knowledge, capacity and resources with foreign partners. The Department of Science and Technology has formal bilateral and multilateral arrangements with 62 different partners, encompassing country- to-country agreements, as well as science and technology agreements with international multilateral bodies.
To mention just a few highlights, last year, in partnership with the European Union, we cohosted a planning conference for the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. The conference set the tone for a new, larger phase of clinical trials to begin in 2014. This, we believe, will also help channel resources from partners to build human capacity and health research infrastructure in Africa.
Early last year, the German-South African Year of Science was launched to celebrate 16 years of successful co-operation between our two countries. Forty-one new collaborative initiatives were funded during the Year of Science, including a schools essay competition. With us today are three of the winners announced at the closing ceremony in Berlin last month. They are - and I hope they will stand up so that we can all see them - Thandeka Nzimande - no relationship to Blade - from Letsibogo Girls High in Gauteng; Zandile Mashabane from Mahhushe Agricultural High School in Mpumalanga and Mukundi Mushiana from Mbilwi Secondary School in Limpopo. [Applause.]
Our successful partnership with the government of Finland continues to strengthen our innovation capacity. One of the partnership's success stories is RLabs, a community project established in 2008 by Marlon Parker, whose dream was to find a way of using information and communications technology, ICT, to bring hope to young people. Through the Department of Science and Technology's initial investment, RLabs established an academy and outreach programmes that have now reached thousands of youngsters in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, providing free training in web literacy, social innovation and entrepreneurship. More than 1 500 community members will receive training at the RLabs Academy this year. Marlon is with us today. I am sure he will be available to tell you more about this great success story. Marlon, we are very proud of you. Thank you. [Applause.]
Of course, there are a lot of other young people here today. We have some Grade 10 learners from the Garlandale High School, and we have some Grade 12 learners from the Hector Peterson Secondary School. [Applause.] There they are, and you can see the young Einsteins sitting among them over there. [Applause.] This same international programme also provides support to the Africa Institute of South Africa, Aisa. Aisa has generated valuable information and knowledge about Africa on key areas of development, such as governance and security, sustainable development and science, technology and innovation.
Draft legislation providing for the incorporation of Aisa into the Human Sciences Research Council, HSRC, is currently with the portfolio committee. Members of the committee will be pleased to know that I met with the council members last week to discuss some of the key considerations that need to be applied in the process of incorporating Aisa into the HSRC. The council has done sterling work in reviving the institution, and their hard work is well appreciated.
Science and technology is advanced by people - by our scientists, our technicians, our engineers and our computer programmers. Yet, do we have enough scientists and do they have resources to do their jobs to the best of their ability? That is what the Human Capital and Knowledge Systems programme is about, and it is by far the largest of our programmes, accounting for about R2,5 billion of our budget.
The success of our efforts to develop science, engineering and technology human resources depends largely on having sufficient numbers of school leavers with passes in mathematics and science. This means that we have to encourage more learners to choose mathematics and science when they enter Grade 10 and then attract the best performers to science-based careers.
Our 34 science centres play a critical role in popularising maths and science. Although they get support from our Youth into Science programme, they do depend on support from the private sector. In the past two months, we have launched two science centres: the Cape Town Science Centre, which was supported by a number of organisations; and the Nelson Mandela Bay Science and Technology Centre, which was sponsored by Volkswagen SA. We are pleased to announce today that BMW SA is generously donating educational cars to five science centres across the country. [Applause.] Tomorrow, the Cape Town Science Centre will be the first to receive one of these cars. Allow me to express my appreciation to Mr Guy Kilfoil from BMW SA, who is also with us today. [Applause.] Can you please stand up, sir? Thank you very much. [Applause.]
The SA Young Academy of Science, Sayas, was established in 2011 with the aim of encouraging learners to take science as a subject. Sayas hosted the Global Young Academy General Assembly in May last year, which brought young scientists from more than 50 countries together to deliberate on sustainability. Sayas represents the best of our new generation of highly talented young scientists.
We have a number of instruments that are designed to strengthen research capacity at our universities, including the research chairs and centres of excellence programmes, both managed by the NRF. The SA Research Chairs Initiative is steadily gaining traction, with an additional 35 chairs to be filled this year, bringing the total to 152 research chairs, covering a wide spectrum of disciplines.
Last month, we launched our ninth centre of excellence, the Palaeosciences Centre of Excellence at the University of the Witwatersrand. It will build on the remarkable work done by Wits palaeoscientists over many decades and will showcase South Africa's wealth of fossil evidence of the earliest life on earth and, in particular, the extraordinary discoveries of our early human ancestry at the Cradle of Humankind. The centre will collaborate with a number of institutions across the country, including the Iziko Museum, where the Department of Science and Technology is holding its exhibition today and tomorrow. The NRF has made a call for proposals for four additional centres of excellence and the selection process will take place during the course of the year.
We continue to look for different ways of supporting the research community, especially in trying to make research a more attractive career choice. The Department of Science and Technology has increased its investments over the 2013 MTEF in programmes such as once-off research development grants for qualifying young, black and women researchers to assist them to become established researchers; research career advancement fellowships offered to senior postdoctoral fellows; and sabbatical grants awarded to fast-track the completion of doctoral degrees by academic staff at universities. Don't say it, but I will: Cheers! Thank you. [Laughter.] [Interjections.]
Hon Mnyami Booi, one of our key partners in human capital development is the Department of Higher Education and Training. An agreement has been reached that higher education will be responsible for ensuring the provision of basic research training equipment in universities, while the Department of Science and Technology will fund specialised research equipment.
Competitive high-quality research is simply not possible today without adequate research infrastructure. A total of 139 research and educational sites have now been connected with high-speed networks through the SA National Research Network, SANReN. This has virtually eliminated the digital divide between urban and remotely located institutions. Through SANReN, rural universities are just as able to participate in global experiments as urban universities.
Furthermore, SANReN opens up new possibilities in the way teaching and research is conducted, with the high-speed transport of large datasets, participation in global experiments regardless of physical location, and collaborative online teaching. The investment in SANReN has reduced Internet costs for participating institutions by a factor of more than 10. The Department of Science and Technology will invest about R600 million in the next five years to more than double the international bandwidth of SANReN.
In the area of information dissemination, the Academy of Science of South Africa, ASSAf, has established a high-quality and prestigious open-access journal collection, aimed at serving the South African research community. Scientific Electronic Library Online, or SciELO, as it is known, will promote South African research by enhancing its visibility and making it easier to access. ASSAf's budget has been increased by 40% to allow it to play a stronger role in support of research in South Africa.
Next week we will be launching the National Recordal System for Indigenous Knowledge, the NRS, and the Indigenous Knowledge Bioprospecting and Product Development Consortium the following month. I did not discover or invent these long names, hon members! Together, these interventions will considerably strengthen our ability to utilise - very important - indigenous knowledge as an input into the development of useful products and services. The NRS is the first ever Internet-based national digital system to document indigenous knowledge. You see, when we start talking about indigenous knowledge, hon members start falling asleep. [Laughter.] We must really showcase ... [Interjections.] ... indigenous knowledge. Thank you, Lance. [Interjections.] We have invested R22 million in the further development of this system. Let me turn to our socioeconomic partnerships programme, which has been allocated R1,7 billion, 60% of which goes to our main implementation partners, the HSRC and the CSIR. This programme has two distinct purposes. The first is to apply science and technology to improve the circumstances of the most deprived and vulnerable in our society. The second is to develop research and development partnerships that target opportunities for establishing niche industries and, in so doing, increase the competitiveness of our economy.
One of the key growth sectors is ICT. I am pleased to report that just two weeks ago, Cabinet approved a 10-year ICT research, development and innovation road map, which will assist South Africa to take maximum advantage of the digital revolution.
The Titanium Industry Development Initiative is making impressive progress. More than R75 million will be invested over the next two years through the Titanium Centre of Competence, hosted by the CSIR. A key activity is the development of a novel, low-cost process for the production of titanium metal powder, which will provide South Africa with a global competitive advantage. A pilot plant, with the capacity to produce 2 kg of titanium powder per hour, using this novel process, is currently under construction at the CSIR campus in Pretoria. It will be officially launched next month.
Through donor funding of E30 million from the European Union, the department has been implementing a number of initiatives that use science and technology to make a significant contribution to poverty alleviation, such as in essential oils and aquaculture, and improved human settlement models. Our main objective is to capture the lessons from these initiatives for consideration and implementation by other government departments.
An excellent example of a Department of Science and Technology initiative involving successful intergovernmental collaboration is our pilot education project in the Cofimvaba District of the Eastern Cape. Through this initiative, we are exploring innovative ways to improve the quality of learning and teaching in rural schools. The initiative involves 26 schools in the Nciba District and is being conducted in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education and the Eastern Cape department of education. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has contributed R22 million to the pilot project.
The pilot project will examine how the use of tablet computers can best improve educational outcomes in a rural context and will help us determine which tablets work best, how to deal with important operational challenges such as the recharging of tablets at schools without electricity, and how best to support learners, teachers and parents in the use of new technologies. As a start, over the next three months, 3 000 tablets will be distributed to learners and teachers in 12 schools. [Applause.] It is just a start, as our ultimate objective is that every learner in the country will make use of tablets. Our ultimate objective is to go in that direction. [Applause.] The support has come from the CSIR's Meraka Institute. All 26 schools in the district will be connected to the Internet via satellite and wireless mesh-network technology.
The pilot project is, of course, not limited to ICT, but it will also test different sanitation options, alternative forms of energy and models for improving the school nutrition programme. The HSRC has been contracted to monitor and evaluate aspects of the project and to assist in extracting the policy lessons for the possible scaling up of some aspects to other districts and provinces.
At this point I should say that both the CSIR and the HSRC are doing impressive research in a wide range of specialised areas. For example, the CSIR's capabilities in the field of defence technology have grown to be of a world-class standard. Working with the SA National Defence Force, the CSIR has contributed a number of interventions to optimise technologies used by our patrol teams, both on land and at sea. Readily available tools such as smartphones, geographic information system, GIS, applications, and radio and camera surveillance are integrated into these systems.
The HSRC has been appointed as the South African think-tank incubator for the Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa, Brics, grouping, with Dr Olive Shisana as its leader, in order to co-ordinate Brics work undertaken by researchers at the HSRC and other institutions around the country. The HSRC also conducts invaluable research on attitudes and behaviour regarding HIV and Aids, maintains the long-standing SA Social Attitudes Survey and the SA National Survey of Research and Experimental Development, and performs vital work in trying to bring social scientists and policy-makers together.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the many researchers - many of whom are with us today - scientists and business innovators who are the backbone of our national system of innovation, and I acknowledge our many partners in government, the private sector, the science councils and agencies, with particular thanks to those who serve on the boards of our public entities.
My sincere thanks also go to our director-general, Dr Mjwara. He is the good-looking man sitting over in that little gallery. I saw all the women wake up when I said there was a good-looking man sitting over there. [Laughter.] [Applause.] Thanks to the absolutely fine staff of the Department of Science and Technology - a fact Minister Pandor will attest to - for their dedicated efforts to get science and technology to make a real, lasting difference in people's lives.
I would like to express my appreciation to the portfolio committee for their support, but also for holding us to account. We certainly welcome the oversight work they are doing. It is all in the interest of science and technology making a positive contribution to South Africa and taking our country forward towards the realisation of our dreams and aspirations.
Finally, the people with the most difficult task of all are the people who work in my office. They have a huge management task - that of managing me and, believe me, that is no easy task. Thank you, staff members, for your outstanding work. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson; hon Minister of Science and Technology, Comrade Derek Hanekom; our former Minister of Science and Technology, Comrade Naledi Pandor; hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here; hon members and guests of Parliament in the gallery; the Director-General and his team; sons of the soil, flowers of the nation, people of integrity, I greet you all. [Applause.]
On 13 March 2013, the Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara, briefed the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology on the annual performance plans and budget of Department of Science and Technology. Subsequently, seven entities that receive their budget allocations directly from the department, namely the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Human Sciences Research Council, the African Institute of South Africa, the Technology Innovation Agency, the Academy of Science of South Africa, the National Research Foundation, and the SA National Space Agency also followed suit to present their annual performance plans to the portfolio committee.
The Department of Science and Technology's presentation provided an overview of the strategic context within which it operates, detailing its strategic goals, key priorities and recent outputs. In addition, the Department of Science and Technology highlighted a selection of performance indicators and their concomitant targets and summarised the budget allocation for each of its entities for the current financial year.
At this juncture, it is important to highlight that the work of the Department of Science and Technology is mainly guided by the White Paper on Science and Technology, which actually introduced the concept known as the National System of Innovation, NSI. This concept signifies an enabling framework for the development of science, technology and innovation at the national level.
In seeking to transform the South African economy into a knowledge-based economy, the department has engaged two key strategies, namely the National Research and Development Strategy, adopted by the Cabinet in 2002, and the Ten-Year Innovation Plan, launched by the Department of Science and Technology in 2009 as Vision 2018. The department's policy framework is further informed by and aligned to broader government priorities such as the National Development Plan, NDP.
The NDP considers science, technology and innovation to be key aspects of the South African developmental agenda. According to the NDP, science and technology are crucial for equitable growth because advances in these fields underpin advances in the economy. The NDP has its vision focused for our country to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030 through a variety of measures that would unleash the energies of its citizens and grow an inclusive economy, moving away from being unsustainably resource- intensive to becoming knowledge-based.
This signifies a clear alignment with the department's Vision 2018 and the resolution of the 53rd ANC Conference in Mangaung on science and technology. This means that five years from now the march towards 2030 will be led by the ANC-led Department of Science and Technology. [Applause.]
In the era of offensive and dominant global market forces, where biotechnology is being adapted by many countries in the world to biosolutions such as biomanufacturing, biomining, biofuel processing, bio- entrepreneurship, bio-informatics, biomanagement, etc, the Department of Science and Technology has also decided to review its National Biotechnology Strategy. This was first launched in 2001 and has been redefined in terms of a bio-economy strategy. The concept of "bio-economy" refers to activities that make use of bio-innovations based on biological sources, materials and processes to generate sustainable economic, social and environmental development. In the bio-economy, the entire innovation system or network, ranging from ideas, research, development, production and manufacturing to commercialisation, should be used to its full potential in a well co-ordinated manner.
The new bio-economy strategy is expected to provide an economic engine for the new knowledge-based economy, which in turn will provide a basis for future growth in the economy. Such science-based biosolutions can be used, for instance, to manufacture high-value protein products such as biopharmaceuticals and vaccines; produce biofuels; produce biomining products, improve and adapt crops; reduce production costs, reduce environmental impacts; improve quality of products, etc.
The bioeconomy strategy is well aligned to the National Development Plan's Vision of 2030. It is expected that by 2030 the bioeconomy will be a significant contributor to the South African economy in terms of gross domestic product, GDP, through the creation of biobased services, products and innovations, including bio-entrepreneurs and intellectual property management.
A major comparative advantage for the bioeconomy is the fact that South Africa is the third most biologically diverse country in the world, with almost 10% of the world's known plant species and 15% of all known coastal marine species. Furthermore, South Africa comprises nine unique vegetation types, of which three have been declared global biodiversity hotspots. It is also the only country to contain an entire floral kingdom, the so-called Cape Floristic Region.
South Africa's natural capital of biological diversity, combined with its wealth of indigenous knowledge, forms one of the country's greatest assets. In a nutshell, the bioeconomy strategy aims to build on the achievement of the National Biotechnology Strategy, to incorporate lessons learnt and to move forward with initiatives that can address the challenges and opportunities of the future.
In the global context, it is envisaged that the global population will increase by 28%, from 6,5 billion in 2005 to 8,3 billion by 2030. Ninety- seven percent of this population growth will occur in developing countries. Such population growth has a direct bearing on resources such as health services, essential natural resources, food, animal feed, clean water and energy. It is for this very reason that there is a notable and growing interest in the concept of the bio-economy in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, countries and in non-OECD countries alike. This interest is due to the bio-economy's potential for significant global economic, social and environmental benefits in an integrated framework. While the bio-economy contributes less than 1% of GDP today, it is expected that by 2030 this would have risen to 2,7% of GDP in OEDC countries and probably considerably more in non-OEDC countries.
The expected outcomes of the development of the bio-economy by 2018 are: a globally competitive pharmaceutical industry; functional technology platforms to facilitate preclinical drug development; funded centres of competence in the top five national health priorities, namely HIV and Aids, TB, malaria, diabetes and cancer; increased foreign direct investment in health-related research and development; functional technology platforms for agricultural biotechnology; strengthened animal vaccine research and development, as well as production; functional biosafety platforms to provide regulatory guidance and support; and functional bioprospecting platforms for Indigenous Knowledge Systems, IKS, as the hon Minister mentioned.
Judging from the above-mentioned outcomes, it is clear that a well- developed bio-economy strategy is very much interlinked with the development of the IKS. The IKS is a subprogramme of the Department of Science and Technology and is administered by the National Indigenous Knowledge Systems Office, Nikso. The Nikso mandate is to interface IKS with other knowledge systems for sustainable development and improved quality of life. The subprogramme comprises three directorates, namely advocacy and policy development, knowledge development and knowledge management. The IKS policy advocates that centres of excellence in IKS be established in order to interface with other knowledge systems, while generating knowledge and developing human capital. In line with the bio-economy strategy, the strategic focus of IKS Centres of Excellence would be public health and traditional medicines, food security, learning and teaching.
The IKS Centres of Excellence are currently hosted by the Universities of North West, Limpopo and Venda. Of late, Unisa and the University of KwaZulu- Natal have also been added. The participating universities have succeeded in registering a Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems through the SA Qualifications Authority, Saqa. Subsequently, Saqa also accepted the development of the Bachelor of IKS to honours, Master's and PhD levels. [Applause.]
There are three flagship programmes in IKS bioprospecting and product development platforms aimed at developing products, processes and services based on interfacing and mainstreaming IKS with other knowledge systems, namely the African traditional medicines flagship programme, the cosmeceuticals flagship programme and the nutraceutical flagship programme.
The first flagship programme, which relates to African traditional medicine, is focused on innovation in herbal medicines against diabetes, HIV/Aids and TB. The second flagship programme of cosmeceuticals has conducted human trials on two skin-care products with anti-ageing qualities. Some of you whose faces are ageing will be helped by this technology. [Laughter.]
HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
The third flagship programme has developed nutraceutical products from indigenous vegetables, namely cold and hot teas, pestos and dried vegetables.
In the 2012-13 financial year, nine leads were identified and researched for medical, cosmeceutical and nutraceutical potential.
From the above it is clear that the successful development of a bio-economy strategy is indivisible from the development of a viable IKS strategy. If well co-ordinated and implemented, all these strategies, including the Ten- Year Innovation Plan, as guided by the National Development Plan Vision 2030, are surely going to take South Africa where it wants to be in 2030.
It would indeed only be then that the National Planning Commission could proudly proclaim:
We, the people of South Africa, have journeyed far since the long lines of our first democratic election on 27 April 1994, when we elected a government for us all. Now, in 2030, we live in a country which we have remade. In conclusion, please allow me to thank the Minister of Science and Technology for the unreserved support and co-operation that our portfolio committee has enjoyed from his Director-General and his departmental team, leading up to the hosting of this debate. The same goes to my fellow members of the portfolio committee and our committee staff. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 34 - Science and Technology.
Chairperson, this year, during his state of the nation address, President Zuma demonstrated a total disregard for the Labour Relations Act by giving his own explanation of the term "essential services", which was contrary to the legal definition thereof contained in the Act.
To put his distortion in context, I will now focus on the Ministerial Review Report presented to the portfolio committee on 6 June last year. It is a report on the readiness of the National System of Innovation landscape to meet the needs of our country. The review committee was commissioned to identify what would be required from the state in order to ensure an adequate and growing investment in innovation that would deliver a sustained and durable knowledge-based economy. The committee was also commissioned to make appropriate recommendations on steps necessary to strengthen the science, technology and innovation system.
Three important observations are stated in the review report: Firstly, the shortfall in human capital development is the key weakness of the National System of Innovation. Secondly, the National System of Innovation depends almost entirely on the effectiveness of the basic education and postschool systems. Thirdly, most of the requirements for making the public education and training system work as the basic enabler of a knowledge economy are not yet in place.
The review committee also came to the conclusion that:
... extremely important, despite being controversial, is that teaching or training is not classified as an essential service, which it undoubtedly is, at all levels from basic to higher education - the nettle simply has to be grasped.
To "grasp the nettle", the committee made an appropriate and unanimous recommendation. Recommendation 15 of the report states:
Teaching at all levels should be declared an essential public service within labour and other legislation.
This recommendation refers to our labour legislation, and that is where President Zuma went wrong. He chose to ignore the exact legal definition of an essential service in the Labour Relations Act, which reads as follows: Essential service means a service, the interruption of which endangers the life, personal safety or health of the whole or any part of the population.
Die Wreldgesondheidsorganisasie het in 2005 'n dokument onder die titel International Classification of Diseases uitgegee. Die vyfde hoofstuk handel oor geestes- en gedragsafwykings. Sielkundige versteurings word deur die Wreldgesonheidsorganisasie as siektetoestande erken. Daar kan geredeneer word dat onderwysers wat kort-kort staak, hul leerders se geestesgesondheid in gevaar stel deur hulle aan onnodige spanning, angs, onsekerheid en trauma bloot te stel wat selfs depressie tot gevolg kan h. Swak eksamenuitslae het al tot selfmoord gelei.
Die portfeuljekomitee is ingelig dat die proses met die ministerile oorsigverslag nog nie afgehandel is nie. Intussen weet ons dat die ANC se besluit om onderwys as noodsaaklike diens te verklaar, deur die SAKP en SA Demokratiese Onderwysunie, Sadou, gedwarsboom is. Dit is korrek om te argumenteer dat 'n onderwyser se reg om te staak 'n fundamentele reg is, maar die Handves van Regte in ons Grondwet spel ook die regte van kinders uit. Artikel 29(1)(a) konstateer: "Elkeen het die reg op basiese onderwys". Artikel 28(1)(d) lees: "Elke kind het die reg om teen ... verwaarlosing, ... beskerm te word"; en in die geval van botsende regte tydens 'n staking, behoort artikel 28(2) oorweeg te kan word. Dit lui: "'n Kind se beste belang is van deurslaggewende belang in elke aangeleentheid wat die kind raak." Dit is duidelik dat Sadou ontsteld is oor aanbeveling 15. Soveel as wat hierdie aanbeveling nodig is om te verseker dat wetenskap, tegnologie en innovering op 'n stewige grondslag kan gedy, bedreig dit SADOU-lede se reg om te staak. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[In 2005 the World Health Organisation, WHO, published a report under the title International Classification of Diseases. The fifth chapter deals with mental and behavioural aberrations. Mental disturbance is acknowledged by the WHO as a sickness. It can be argued that teachers who are frequently on strike can endanger the state of mental health of their pupils by exposing them to stress, anxiety, uncertainty and trauma, which can even lead to depression. Poor examination results have already led to suicide.
The portfolio committee has been informed that the process with the ministerial oversight report has not yet been finalised. In the meantime we know that the ANC's decision to declare education as an essential service was thwarted by the SACP and the SA Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu. It is correct to argue that a teacher's right to strike is a fundamental right, but the Bill of Rights in our Constitution also spells out the rights of children. Section 29(1)(a) states: "Everyone has the right to a basic education ..."; section 28(1)(d) reads: "Every child has the right to be protected from ... neglect ..."; and in the case of a conflict of interests during a strike, section 28(2) should be considered. It reads: "A child's best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child."
It is clear that SADTU is upset about recommendation 15. Insofar as this recommendation is needed to ensure that science, technology and innovation are able to thrive on a sound basis, it is a threat to Sadtu members' right to strike.]
Chairperson, on a point of order: I just wanted to double-check with the Chairperson whether we are in the Department of Science and Technology debate.
Hon Deputy Minister, I am following the hon member, and I encourage the hon member to move closer to the Budget Vote before us.
Agb Adjunkminister, u moet net mooi luister, dan sal u agterkom waaroor dit gaan.
Maar geen reg is absoluut nie. Die reg om te staak sou, as fundamentele reg, in hierdie geval beperk kon word deur artikel 36, die beperkingsklousule in die Handves, in werking te stel. Agb Minister, die taak l op u skouers om te sorg dat aanbeveling 15 met groot verantwoordelikheid oorweeg word. Die sukses waarmee u departement sy mandaat in die toekoms sal kan uitvoer, is op die spel. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Dr J C KLOPPERS-LOURENS: Hon Deputy Minister, just listen carefully, then you will find out what this is about.
But no right is absolute. The right to strike, as a fundamental right, could in this case be limited by putting into force section 36, the clause of limitation in the Bill of Rights. Hon Minister, the task rests upon your shoulders to ensure that recommendation 15 is considered with great responsibility. The future success of your department in carrying out its mandate is at stake.]
One of the three priorities underlined in the National Development Plan to achieve its objectives, is "improving the quality of education, skills development and innovation". Education, skills and innovation are inseparable. Deng Xiaoping, an outstanding Chinese leader of the previous century, who contributed hugely to turning China into a fast-growing and successful economy, constantly emphasised the importance of education and the advancement of science and technology. Last year, during my Budget Vote speech, I stressed the fact that the creation of human capital and a knowledge-based economy started with the curriculum presented in our educational institutions. I called on the Minister to become involved in conversations in this regard. In her response, she agreed that we must strive to improve our performance. Too little time prevents me from elaborating on this issue, Minister, but it suffices to refer you to an extract from paragraph 4 of Chapter 2 of the White Paper on Science and Technology, which reads:
New approaches to education and training need to be developed that will equip researchers to work more effectively in an innovative society. This will require new curricula and training programmes that are comprehensive, holistic and flexible, rather than narrowly discipline- based. Education and training in an innovative society should not trap people within constraining specialities, but enable them to participate and adopt a problem-solving approach to social and economic issues within and across discipline boundaries.
Agb Minister, ek wil herhaal wat ek verlede jaar ges het. U departement behoort betrokke te raak by die kurrikulumgesprek en moet miskien selfs die voortou neem. [Hon Minister, I repeat what I said last year. Your department should become involved in the curriculum dialogue and should perhaps even take a leading role.]
During the past year, I sought clarity about the issue of government's involvement in SunSpace, a strategically important satellite manufacturing company. Despite two Cabinet decisions in 2009 and 2011 that government would acquire a majority equity stake in SunSpace and that funding would be made available through the usual budget processes of government, the management and council of this company were greatly disillusioned over a period of three-and-a-half years. In what was nothing but a 180-degree turnaround on this issue, Cabinet, in October 2012, approved that negotiations be entered into with the SA National Space Agency, Sansa, to explore the absorption of the core capability of SunSpace into Sansa. The department then proposed that SunSpace's core capability be safeguarded and absorbed into Denel Dynamics.
The process started in November 2012 and it was anticipated that it could take approximately three to four months. Minister, it is now seven months later. The lives and finances of many highly qualified SunSpace staff members are still on hold. Where does the department stand regarding the whole absorption process and at what cost will the tax-paying community have to foot the bill?
Laastens, die Africa Institute of South Africa Act Repeal Bill wil die wet herroep en die instituut ontbind, wat tot inkorporasie van die instituut in die Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing sal lei. Hoewel dit tans die enigste oplossing vir probleme met die instituut blyk te wees, kom die inkorporering verdag voor. Die inkorporasieproses het reeds begin voordat die Parlement die wetsontwerp goedgekeur het. Dit lyk asof daar eers op inkorporasie besluit is en toe na redes gesoek is om dit te regverdig. Dit laat 'n mens wonder of die bestuurprobleme van die instituut nie miskien aan die wortel van die ontbinding l nie. In 1999 was die salarispakket van die besturende direkteur, wat tot vroe aftrede gedwing is, 'n skrale R150 000. Vir sy opvolger is dit onmiddellik byna verdubbel en binne ses jaar versesvoudig, waarna hy moes bedank vanwe ondersoeke na wanbestuur. Di salarispakket staan tans op R1,5 miljoen. Die jaarlikse begroting van die instituut het oor 'n tydperk van 13 jaar van R3,2 miljoen na R35,2 miljoen geklim en, ten spyte van 'n veel groter personeel, is uitsette nie na wense nie. Dit het my te wete gekom dat die instituut se bydrae tot die mediese hulpfonds van sy pensioenarisse oor die afgelope twee jaar van 70% tot 30% verminder is, glo in opdrag van die departement vanwe begrotingsbeperkinge. Dit is 'n skrale besparing van R55 000 vanjaar teen 'n begroting van ongeveer R40 miljoen.
Soos met die Transnet-pensioenarisse moet pensioenarisse van die instituut nou bykans hul volle pensioen aan mediese fondsbydraes bestee. Dit is pensioene wat in 2012, sonder konsultasie met pensioenarisse, in annuteitspolisse omskep is en wat pensioenarisse nou uitlewer aan die onstabiliteit van die aandelemark. Minister, dit is ontstellend. Dit pas nie by die aansien van u departement nie.
'n AGB LID: Hoor, hoor!
Die Minister het reeds daarna verwys, maar vergun my die geleentheid om ook vir dr Bernie Fanaroff, 'n baanbreker van die Vierkante Kilometer Reeks, VKR, projek, vandag geluk te wens met die toekenning van die Nasionale Orde van Mapungubwe, silwer, wat aan hom op Vryheidsdag verleen is. Dr Fanaroff, ons salueer u! [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Lastly, the Africa Institute of South Africa Act Repeal Bill seeks to repeal the Act and dissolve the institute, which would result in the incorporation of the institute in the Human Sciences Research Council. Although it currently appears to be the only solution to the problems with the institute, the incorporation seems to be suspicious. The process of incorporation started before Parliament passed the Bill. It would seem as if the decision to incorporate was taken first, after which reasons were sought to justify this. It makes one wonder if the institute's management problems could lie at the root of the dissolution.
In 1999 the salary package of the managing director, who was forced into early retirement, was a meagre R150 000. For his successor it was almost doubled immediately and within six years it was sextupled, after which he had to resign due to investigations into mismanagement. This salary package currently stands at R1,5 million. Over a period of 13 years the institute's annual budget has climbed from R3,2 million to R35,2 million and, despite a much larger staff complement, the output is not as desired. It has come to my knowledge that the institute's contribution to the medical aid fund of its pensioners has been reduced from 70% to 30% over the past two years, apparently by order of the department because of budget constraints. This is a meagre savings of R55 000 for this year, against a budget of about R40 million.
As with the Transnet pensioners, the pensioners of this institute now have to spend nearly all their pension on medical aid contributions. These are pensions that in 2012, without consulting the pensioners, were converted into annuity policies, thereby handing them over to the instability of the stock market. Minister, this is alarming. It is not in keeping with the status of your department.
Hear, hear!
The Minister has already referred to this, but do allow me the opportunity today also to congratulate Dr Bernie Fanaroff, a pioneer of the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, project, upon receiving the National Order of Mapungubwe, silver, which was awarded to him on Freedom Day. Dr Fanaroff, we salute you! [Applause.]]
Chairperson, hon Minister, members, guests in the gallery, the building of the Square Kilometre Array telescope is a proud moment for South Africa. We should rightly be very proud to have won international support for the building of this unique telescope in our country. However, this remarkable achievement underscored the two realities of South Africa. On the one side, mathematics, high science and technology prevail. On the other side, they are almost completely lacking. Our maths education has for many years been ranked among the worst in the world.
If our country has any ambition of being a leader in the field of technology, it will certainly have to put the teaching of mathematics on a war footing. The two Departments of Education and the Department of Science and Technology should seek to do away with maths literacy immediately and put mathematics at the centre of the school. Our failure to remedy the deficit in mathematics and science education will prevent the transformation of our country and of our economy from being realised.
In the apartheid era, Verwoerd had decreed that maths and science should not be taught to black children in South Africa. One would therefore have expected the democratic government to have prioritised maths and science education above everything else. If the foundation is lacking, the superstructure that the department is seeking to build is unrealistic. We demand to know when the teaching of maths and science in our schools will be put on a war footing.
The second problem relates to embedding science and technology in the National Development Plan. However, the SA Communist Party and Cosatu are rejecting the only plan for the revival of the South African economy out of hand. On page 809 of the Estimates of National Expenditure, the department states:
In order to realise the potential of technology as an engine of growth, investment needs to be made in scientific and technological education and the population empowered, through access to knowledge and skills, to use technology efficiently.
Everywhere in the world technology is indeed being used to serve as an engine of growth. Yesterday, Samsung in South Korea announced the arrival of 5G mobile broadband, which would make the downloading of data one hundred times faster than 4G. If technology is going to be our engine of growth, why are we lagging behind in broadband development?
Our population has definitely not been empowered, through access to knowledge and skills, to use technology efficiently, as the projects mentioned in the Estimates of National Expenditure would have it. I will go so far as to say that our population is simply being left to provide its own support without any real intervention from government. The general population is being fed promises and nothing else.
I am stressing the point of small businesses because the department is claiming in the Estimates of National Expenditure to be contributing to employment creation and economic growth by providing technological assistance packages to small, medium and micro enterprises. We would like to know what constitutes these packages and how widely they are being rolled out.
At a time in our country when joblessness continues to escalate and desperation is intensifying, it is time to ask hard questions about how public money is being spent. By next year the present administration will have added a mind-blowing R1 trillion to the national debt. Considering how much is being spent by government and how much it is borrowing, we need to know which research undertaken by the department has already led to industrial opportunities in earth system sciences, advanced manufacturing, advanced metals and information communications technology. If indeed these industrial opportunities have been created, what investments were made in respect of research in our country and how many jobs were created?
The funding of marketable research has to be a priority of the department. We have already lost R15 billion or more on the Joule electric car and Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project. Is the ongoing marketable research guaranteed to produce income and jobs?
The time has come for each department to produce a rolling audit of expenditure and outcomes. The department must show the total number of projects or programmes from the past that have been abandoned and those it is still continuing with. Each year the Minister of Finance continues with the theme that we need more bang for our buck and therefore the question of an annual as well as a continuous value audit has become a vital necessity.
On page 813, the department explains that the increase in expenditure in 2009 to 2013 is attributed to "the expansion of executive support". What exactly does this mean and what value did South Africa obtain from that increased expenditure?
Leading on from that question, I need to ask the following: What Performance Information Management system did the department procure that was different from other departments, and what ministerial public participation programme did it undertake, as is required by government regulations?
This department must not only assert that its activities are central to knowledge growth, innovation and industrialisation but it must prove that on a year-to-year basis.
Cope will support the Budget Vote, but requests that the questions raised in this intervention be given full and satisfactory responses. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and hon colleagues, as the IFP we are very pleased to be able to stand here today to support the Budget Vote of this department. We are pleased because it is our view that this department is one of the few in government that does a decent job. [Applause.] There are plenty that we could severely criticise while standing here but this outfit is pretty good. So, I shall give credit where credit is due.
Listening to the Minister, one very quickly realises that the department has a huge ambit of projects and its remit is very large. I don't have time to speak to all things, so I would like to refer to just three items, which are areas of slight concern, bearing in mind that, overall, the department is doing a pretty good job.
The first of these concerns is the popularisation of science, engineering and technology among young people, who will, in due course, populate this pipeline that we need. The Minister pointed to our young colleagues up in the gallery and said that they may well be the Einsteins of the future. Well, let's hope that is the case, but let me also say to them that it will only be the case if they study mathematics and science at school. The future of this country lies in science, engineering and technology. That is the future of South Africa. It is your future as well, but go and study maths and science, take it at university and then you are on wavelength to a good future. So, go for that.
Having said that, it is good that the department puts fairly substantial resources and effort into popularising science, and outreach programmes through science centres, science weeks, etc, are an important aspect of this. However, I do think that this should not constitute a core competence of this department. In my humble opinion, we need a national programme, a massive roll-out, undertaken by Basic Education - not by the Department of Science and Technology - to deal with science, education and technology, SET, outreach, career guidance and all the pedagogic challenges we face in improving our outcomes. This will then free the department to concentrate on its core mandate, which really is the implementation of its five strategic medium-term goals, one of which is human capacity development. However, I think that here we are really speaking about tertiary-level graduate and postgraduate issues, rather than schools.
My second concern, also on the theme of human capacity development, is the extent to which the department can better contribute to tackling capacity constraints, which in turn constrain knowledge production and, of course, innovation. If you consider the SET pipeline in our school system, there is really nothing much to write home about, and my colleague in the DA was quite right to point to the very serious crisis that we have in education, in particular at maths and science level.
The results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, TIMSS, are very depressing. The take-up of maths in schools instead of math literacy, which is real nonsense, is depressing. It is not good for the future of science education in the country. Given that, one might well conclude that the human capacity development programmes of this department and its partner institutions, such as the National Research Foundation, are adequate, given the circumstances and material that they have to deal with. But I don't think that is actually correct. Our human capacity development targets need to be raised.
When one listens to institutions like the NRF - and they were with us - they talk about increases in outcomes of 3% to 4% per annum. That may be acceptable, but I don't think it is, because we need to aim high. We need to deliver higher than that. Anything that can increase those outcomes is to be welcomed. An additional amount of R500 million has been given for the outer limit of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework to be spent on human capacity development. It is a great thing but we really need to raise our targets in this area.
I also want to talk about something that the Minister didn't really deal with this time but which we have gone through before. It relates to the level of expenditure on research and development. We have had this modest target of 1% of gross domestic product for research and development for many years, and we have never managed to reach it. We go creakingly low to 0,96% and 0,94%, but we never crack the 1%. This is very depressing because if one looks at the raw data, the actual expenditure on research and development has increased from approximately R5 billion to R21 billion over the decade ... [Inaudible.] ... before last year. That doesn't sound bad but the problem is that its quite modest when compared to our competitors out there in the global economy. If you have problems on the research and development side, then you are probably going to have problems on the innovation and commercialisation sides, and everything else as well.
We really need to step this up because we are not unlocking our economic potential sufficiently when our research and development is stuck below 1%.
I am very pleased that the Minister made reference to the outcome from the Ministerial Review Committee when he mentioned the R500 million grant being given over three years to strengthen research and development within industry. That is wonderful. He also spoke about a joint summit happening in July. These are very important and good initiatives. However, anything that we can do to unlock this 1% barrier and get beyond it is to be welcomed. A couple of years ago, the previous Minister spoke about a target of 1,5% that we should be heading to, and she was right. Let's get over this 1% barrier and set ourselves a new challenge of 1,5%. Then we will be making progress.
I'm running out of time so let me quickly say something that may not be very appropriate, given that there is an election around the corner. I don't want to say that the department is perfect, but I do think that we have a very good team here, with good projects and good partners. It's a very exciting bunch of people to work with and from an oversight perspective it is a privilege to work with all the people involved. I won't say that of all the departments, mind you, but certainly of this one. [Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, hon Minister of Science and Technology, hon members, distinguished guests, today, as we vote on the budget of the Department of Science and Technology, let us take a moment to reflect and acknowledge our medical scientists and the role played by the Department of Science and Technology in advancing health research.
The past year was very fruitful with regard to the investment of the department in health innovation. Not only was Prof Kelly Chibale able to announce the first South African discovery of a malaria drug candidate, but this was also followed by the announcement of a close partnership with the pharmaceutical industry that will boost drug discovery and development capacities in Africa.
South Africa is suffering from a quadruple burden, namely that of HIV and TB; maternal and child mortality; noncommunicable disease; and violent injuries and trauma. This disease burden is mostly fuelled by poverty and disempowerment. HIV and Aids are still the main problems, but noncommunicable diseases are rapidly increasing due to lifestyle changes associated with urbanisation and diet changes, as well as socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors. Innovative and creative ways to deal with all four contributors of the burden of disease and mortality are necessary to address this. It is also essential that we develop partnerships between government, the science community and industry.
The Department of Science and Technology should be congratulated on the development of a health research partnership model that brings together individual researchers from various institutions in the country into formal collaborative relationships dedicated to the pursuit of a shared health research and development agenda.
The department currently supports research and development collaborative initiatives aimed at tackling diseases such as HIV/Aids, TB, malaria and noncommunicable diseases.
Nangona iSifo sePhepha isesona sifo sinobungozi esosulelayo, kukho ukunqongophala kwezixhobo ezifanelekileyo zokuthintela esi sifo, ingakumbi kumazwe amaninzi asaphuhlayo. Abaphandi boMzantsi Afrika bayinxalenye yokuphanda ngamachiza. Le nkqubo isekuvavanyo kodwa iziphumo ziyakhuthaza ukuba ukufunyanwa kwechiza lokunyanga iSifo sePhepha eMzantsi Afrika sekumbovu. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Although TB is the most dangerous communicable disease, there is a shortage of appropriate tools for its prevention, particularly in many developing countries. South African researchers are parties of medical research. These efforts are still in the trial phase but the results are encouraging, and they show that finding a treatment for TB in South Africa is imminent.]
South Africa is seen as a good site to conduct clinical studies and hence a number of clinical trials of HIV/Aids and TB preventive and treatment tools are being conducted in the country. It is essential that South Africa ensures that we actually benefit from these clinical trials. With regard to research on HIV and Aids, the project funded by the Department of Science and Technology ensures that South African researchers are acknowledged internationally. The ongoing effort to confirm the results of the tenofovir microbicide gel should be commended.
Young women still bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic and we have to find solutions that will protect these young lives. We are cautiously optimistic that the results of the FACT study and the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA, Caprisa, 008 study will be able to provide some protection. In 2012, researchers at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Caprisa announced a ground-breaking discovery that provides an important new approach that could prove useful in making an Aids vaccine. The researchers discovered a unique feature of HIV that enables infected people to make antibodies that are able to kill a wide range of HIV strains. These broadly neutralising antibodies are considered to be key in developing an Aids vaccine. A noncommunicable disease research and innovation initiative has been established to address the increasing problem of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The key component of the department's effort with regard to the project mentioned above is aligned to collaboration with public-private partnerships dedicated to escalating drug discovery, vaccine and diagnostics research and development. As such, the department is adopting an innovative and collaborative approach to the development of new medicines or vaccines and diagnostics whereby it looks to developing strategic partnerships with other government departments.
The Department of Science and Technology, in support of the development of the National Health Insurance, and the CSIR are assisting with the infrastructure unit system support project in acquiring a primary health care model. The organisation is also developing, on behalf of the national Department of Health, a national normative standards framework for e- health. The organisation has developed and implemented mobile technologies to support the re-engineered primary health care model.
The focus of the 2012 survey has been expanded to include a wide range of health information; for instance, the health of infants and mother and child health. It also included emerging interventions such as male circumcision, issues around psychological health and behavioural risks; for example, alcohol abuse and drug use.
As stated in the National Development Plan, science and technology should be leveraged to solve some of the biggest challenges in education and health. I have highlighted some cases, particularly in health. The ANC resolved at its 53rd National Conference that the ANC should prioritise science and technology policy development implementation and monitoring capacity. Also, the principle of mainstreaming science, technology and innovation in the ANC-led government and the private sector should be adopted. The ANC supports this Budget Vote. [Applause.]
Chairperson, at the turn of the previous century the father of modern space travel, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, stated that while earth is the cradle of humankind, one does not stay in the cradle forever. Those words were prophetic, because the science and technology that emerged from it gave rise to a complex new world where humankind traverses all corners and depths of the earth and rises from our earthly cradle to meet the distant planets and stars that seemed to be unreachable before.
Hierdie departement speel 'n groot rol om te sorg dat Suid-Afrika deel bly van hierdie bre beweging van wetenskap en tegnologie wat vir ons kennis bring oor die aard van ons bestaan, asook hoe ons die toekoms kan bestuur tot voordeel van alle lewe op di kosbare blou planeet van ons.
Die departement se doelwit is dan ook om die volle potensiaal van wetenskap en tegnologie te realiseer in sosiale en ekonomiese ontwikkeling, deur menslike hulpbronne, navorsing en innovering. Die departement se prestasies, of gebrek daaraan, moet dus aan die hand van hul eie doelwitte gevalueer word. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[This department plays a big role in seeing to it that South Africa remains a part of this broad movement of science and technology that brings us knowledge about the nature of our existence, as well as on how to manage the future to the benefit of all life on this precious blue planet of ours.
The department's aim therefore is also to realise the full potential of science and technology in social and economical development, through human resources, research and innovation. The department's achievements, or lack thereof, should therefore be evaluated with reference to its own targets.]
The department deserves praise for its work on the Square Kilometre Array bid and for ensuring that the country received the lion's share of the project. The SKA bid will ensure that South Africa stays a hub for scientific research into the future. Having said this, there are also serious concerns regarding other projects that have not been managed as well.
The budget report states that the purpose of the department's research, development and innovation programme is to facilitate knowledge generation and exploitation through research and development in the key priority areas of space science, bio-economy and energy.
However, if one considers the fiasco that government created regarding its proposed investment in SunSpace, so as to grow the space science capability and economy of the country, one has serious doubts regarding government's commitment to that purpose. After government decided to invest in SunSpace, it mysteriously reneged on its commitment, which in turn gave rise to the company's financial distress. Now the only private space company in Africa is going to be broken up and merged on a piecemeal basis with Denel which has its own challenges.
I understand that the Minister inherited this problem and, in discussions with me, seemed open-minded and willing to look at other alternatives. Therefore, I wish to implore the Minister to once again enter into discussions to save the company. The director-general of Trade and Industry seems keen to contemplate an investment, as it dovetails with the Industrial Policy Action Plan, but is concerned that the break-up process has now already progressed too far. I am certain that if the Minister liaised with Trade and Industry, a solution could be found. Laastens is dit kommerwekkend om te sien dat die intellektuele kapitaal of menslike hulpbronne rondom die gestaakte korrelbedkernreaktor-program nou privaat voortgaan in die VSA. Dit laat die vraag ontstaan of daar ooit genoeg gepoog is om di talent vir Suid-Afrika te behou.
Die Minister is nuut in sy pos. Hy het nou 'n geleentheid om sy eie stempel af te druk en 'n monument te bou. Die eerste hoeksteen daarvan sal inderdaad wees as hy SunSpace van 'n gewisse ondergang kan red. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Lastly, it is alarming to see the intellectual capital or human resources regarding the terminated pebble bed nuclear reactor programme now continuing privately in the USA. The question arises whether enough effort was ever put into retaining this talent for South Africa.
The Minister is new to the position. He now has an opportunity to leave his own stamp and build a monument. The first cornerstone would indeed be if he were to save SunSpace from certain demise. [Applause.]]
Agb Huisvoorsitter, agb Ministers, agb Adjunkministers, agb lede van die Parlement van Suid-Afrika, dames en here, die ANC glo dat wetenskap, tegnologie en innovering baie belangrik en sentraal is om bruikbare en aanvaarbare oplossings vir sosio-ekonomiese uitdagings in Suid-Afrikaanse gemeenskappe te vind. Daarom moet dit bevorder word deur meer beleggings en die befondsing van innovering, nuwe idees en tegnologie.
Die datum 25 Mei 2012 was nie maar net nog 'n dag in die kalender van Afrika en, in die besonder, Suid-Afrika nie. Dit was die dag waarop nege jaar se harde werk beloon is, toe die Vierkante Kilometer Reeks-organisasie aangekondig het dat Suid-Afrika deur konsensus gekies is om die SKA op te rig. Hierdie projek is in die Noord-Kaap gele, in 'n dorpie met die naam Carnarvon. Dit is 'n baie klein dorpie met baie min ekonomiese en beperkte vooruitgangsgeleenthede.
Die oprigting van die SKA in hierdie area is egter reeds besig om die geskiedenis van hierdie dorpie te herskryf. Die plaaslike hospitaal is alreeds opgegradeer, meer besighede is geopen, veral gastehuise, eiendomspryse het drasties die hoogte ingeskiet, 'n rekenaarlokaal is by die horskool ingerig en 20 nuwe rekenaars is alreeds afgelewer. Binne die volgende 60 dae sal die IT-gemeenskapsentrum in Bonteheuwel, in samewerking met die Kareeberg-munisipaliteit, gereed wees vir gebruik.
Die plaaslike gemeenskap word ook op ander maniere bevoordeel. Sowat 900 werkgeleenthede is reeds geskep vir die oprigting van infrastruktuur en ander bedrywighede op die terrein. Hierdie geleenthede spoel ook oor in ontwikkelingskursusse vir die plaaslike gemeenskap. Van die kontrakteurs het 'n wye verskeidenheid kursusse aangebied. Die plaaslike onderwysers het ook rekenaarvaardigheidsopleiding gekry.
Dit is veral oor ons plaaslike jeug oor wie 'n mens baie opgewonde kan raak. Sestien studente - vier vroue en 12 mans - van Carnarvon, Williston en Van Wyksvlei het in April 2012 met tersire opleiding in Kimberley begin. Hulle is besig met tegniese kwalifikasies wat hulle in staat sal stel om later op die projek te kom werk. Die voorgraadse SKA-beursstudente reik ook jaarliks uit om die plaaslike skole se leerders bloot te stel aan loopbaangeleenthede wat verband hou met die SKA-projek.
Soos ons maar is as mense, moet ons altyd probleme h en moet elke projek vir ons probleme inhou. Een van die vrae wat ek onder die omstandighede nooit kon beantwoord en geleentheid kon kry om te beantwoord nie, is: die projek is daar - goed en wel - maar wat betref die ontwikkeling wat tans op die projek plaasvind, sal dit dan wees dat die gastehuise net daar is - ons weet die wetenskaplikes werk ongereelde ure - of sal dit beteken dat meer ontwikkeling op die projek self sal plaasvind, of sal die ontwikkeling meestal in Carnarvon plaasvind?
Ons sal nie werklike waarde aan die projek kan heg sonder om ons vorige Minister, Naledi Pandor, geluk te wens met alles en met die deursettingsvermo wat sy aan die dag gel het nie. Sy het regtig weer betekenis aan die spreukwoord kom gee dat 'n vrou staande kan bly onder moeilike omstandighede en die beste verseker. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mrs H LINE-HENDRIKS: Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers, hon members of the Parliament of South Africa, ladies and gentlemen, the ANC believes that science, technology and innovation are very important and central to finding workable and acceptable solutions to socioeconomic challenges within South African communities. Therefore, they need to be promoted by means of more investments and the funding of innovation, new ideas and technology.
The date 25 May 2012 wasn't just another day on the calendar of Africa, and specifically South Africa. It was the day on which the hard work of nine years was rewarded, when the Square Kilometre Array organisation announced that South Africa was selected through consensus to install the SKA. This project is situated in the Northern Cape, in a town called Carnarvon. It is a very small town with few economic opportunities and limited opportunities for progress.
The installation of the SKA in this area has, however, already led to the history of this small town being rewritten. The local hospital has already been upgraded, more businesses have opened, especially guest houses, the price of property has skyrocketed, a computer centre has been installed at the high school and 20 new computers have already been delivered. Within the next 60 days the IT community centre in Bonteheuwel, in conjunction with the Kareeberg Municipality, will be ready for use.
The local community also benefits in other ways. About 900 job opportunities have been established to assist with the establishment of infrastructure and other activities on the site. These opportunities also resulted in development courses for the local community. Some of the contractors offered a wide variety of courses. The local teachers also received training in computer skills.
Our local youth gives one reason to be very excited. Sixteen students - four ladies and 12 men - from Carnarvon, Williston and Van Wyksvlei started their tertiary education in Kimberley in April 2012. They are busy with their technical qualifications, which will enable them to work on the project later. The pre-graduate SKA-bursary students also reach out annually to learners at local schools to introduce them to career opportunities which are linked to the SKA project.
Being human, we always have our problems, and every project has its own problems. One of the questions which I, under the circumstances, could never answer and have not had the opportunity to answer is: the project exists - that's all very well - but with regard to the development which is currently taking place on the project, will it be that the guest houses will only be there - we know that scientists work irregular hours - or will it mean that more development will take place on the project itself, or will the development largely take place in Carnarvon?
We will not be able to rate the proper value of this project without congratulating the previous Minister, Naledi Pandor, for everything and for the perseverance she showed. She really gave meaning to the saying that a woman can hold her own in difficult circumstances and assure success. [Applause.]]
The department is also involved through its entities in other community- based projects. I will now present these projects briefly.
The proposed Hondeklipbaai abalone hatchery would be capable of supplying abalone spat to both abalone ranching and land-based farming, in addition to creating 30 permanent jobs. This project is still awaiting the outcome of the application for environmental authorisation.
In the Onseepkans essential oils project, it was discovered that the agricultural potential investigation and soil analysis must be completed as part of the ploughing certificate application. The Pella essential oils project also has challenges with the approval of a ploughing certificate and water-use licence. A water-use licence was issued for irrigation purposes only and a similar licence for water storage on site is needed. A meeting was held with the majority of the key role-players in this process to clarify constraints and to speed up the process.
With the Witdraai medicinal plants project, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, first met with the relevant provincial officials to confirm the required permit application forms and to understand the processes involved in obtaining environmental approval before compiling the application. This project aims to develop a model to develop indigenous plant species from wild crafted material to cultivate material for processing while conforming to all regulatory requirements.
The Nourivier-Kougoed demonstration agronomy project faces the challenge of a damaged dam wall that poses a risk to the community in the event of flooding and abstraction of water from the dam. This is not desirable, but a high-level intervention could facilitate the solving of this problem and avert a potential disaster.
In all of these cases, our science councils and entities are working closely with local and provincial authorities to accelerate these socioeconomic innovations for the improvement of the lives of our people. It is essential that we continue to support the close working relationships and co-ordination of all spheres of government in the National System of Innovation. Ons moet regtig erkenning gee aan die ANC-regering. Die regering is doelgerig en wil graag verseker dat wetenskap, tegnologie en innovering soos 'n hand in 'n handskoen pas om vooruitgang te verseker.
Ek wil graag die personeel in die ministerie bedank vir hul beskikbaarheid en hulpvaardigheid wanneer hulle nodig gekry is. Ek moet egter ook my familie bedank, want om Afrikaanssprekend te wees en om Afrikaans te kan praat, is goed, maar om dit te kan skryf, is 'n ander ding. [Tussenwerpsels.] My dogter is in matriek en sy was die woordeboek. My man was die inhoudspesialis. Baie dankie. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[We really need to acknowledge the ANC government. The government is resolute and wants to assure that science, technology and innovation fits like a hand in a glove to enable progress.
I would like to thank the staff in the Ministry for being available and supportive when they were needed. I also need to thank my family, because to have Afrikaans as my mother tongue and to speak Afrikaans is fine, but to write it is a different issue. [Interjections.] My daughter is in matric and she was my dictionary. My husband was the specialist with regard to the content. Thank you. [Applause.]
Hon House Chair, Minister, Deputy Minister and members, in an array of mediocre departments paying lip service to the implementation of, sometimes, very good policy, the Department of Science and Technology does stand out like one of the shining stars that can be viewed from Sutherland. [Applause.]
In a very interesting visit to the 1820 observatory here in Cape Town, we got a clear idea not only of what is happening at the observatory, but also what impacts the telescopes and, specifically, the South African Large Telescope, Salt, had on the small community of Sutherland - the tourist boom, the schools built, a science centre for all to use, guesthouses established and local residents trained to act as tour guides.
The DA welcomes the development of the Square Kilometre Array in the Karoo. The world's attention is fixed on the SKA and the construction of the precursor or pathfinder to the SKA project, which is currently under way - the 64 MeerKAT antennas, the first of which will be installed by December this year.
The majority of the SKA will be built in Africa and as the world's biggest telescope and one of the biggest scientific projects ever, similar benefits to the immediate community and the benefits for the country as a whole should be explored. A concern identified by the Auditor-General in the last audit report for the department was that of the 81 targets planned, only 54 targets were achieved during the year under review.
This represents 33% of total planned targets that were not achieved during the year under review. This was due to the fact that indicators and targets were not suitably developed during the strategic planning process and could indicate poor performance on predetermined objectives. In research, and specifically where our researchers are competing for limited funding, it is crucial that proper and detailed planning be done, that specific objectives are set, that these objectives be measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Failing to achieve the set objectives in one out of three cases is simply not good enough.
Coming to the National Research Foundation, NRF, and specifically Antarctic research, in an earlier parliamentary question by the hon Marian Shinn, it was asked how the SA Agulhas II research facilities could fairly be shared by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Science and Technology. The answer was that the details would still have to be sorted out.
Climate change and diminishing natural resources are becoming more and more relevant. Only yesterday the media widely reported on the record levels of carbon dioxide recorded on 9 May at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the big island of Hawaii - thank you, James Lorimer. The measurement surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time since records began back in 1958. The question remains: How will the research facilities on the SA Agulhas II - eight permanent and six containerised laboratories for different fields of marine, environmental, biological and climate research - be utilised?
An amount of R400 million was budgeted over the medium term for human capital development and R605 million for the modernisation of research infrastructure through the Human Capital and Knowledge Systems programme, and this should be welcomed. However, in scientific publications published, concerns about funding from the National Research Foundation were raised. There have been allegations such as: "The shift in the funding priorities of the department and the NRF over the past five years is leaving researchers in specific disciplines, as well as their graduate students, high and dry."
Although the shift introducing new and exciting scientific research initiatives is welcomed and is indeed of critical importance, it is also crucially important that new initiatives should not be at the expense of support for the basic sciences across all disciplines, which should be the foundation of the national research effort. It must also support the department's strategic objective to increase the number of rated researchers, strengthening research activities at universities to produce world-class research, and increasing the number of PhD students in South Africa.
An international publication reported that South Africa at present has 393 researchers for each million of our population. This is a very challenging, low figure - about a third of that of Botswana - and is placing South Africa in the bottom group of world research. It is therefore a question of doing the one thing and not neglecting the other. Interaction with tertiary institutions, the bastion of South African research, on their funding problems, listening and responding to the voices at the helm of our research facilities, should therefore be an annual occurrence. [Applause.]
Hon Chair, hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, our guests, the young scientists, the Department of Science and Technology, good afternoon. The ANC-led government adopted 12 key outcomes to focus on between 2010 and 2014 and has prioritised the improvement of the quality of basic education as outcome one, out of a total of 20 outcomes. This means that basic education is the top priority of this administration.
One of the key challenges faced by the basic education sector is improving the quality of learning outcomes in schools, in terms of improved learner performance. A substantive amount of energy has been spent in the last few years to improve youth participation and performance in mathematics, science and technology education. The level of success and achievement is still very low in comparison to the country's needs and the majority of those affected come from poor backgrounds. The recently released World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2013 ranks South Africa's maths and science education second last in the world. The report added that South Africa's costly access to information and communication technology is hampering its competitiveness and success. The hon Minister indicated earlier that Cabinet approved the information and communication technology research development and innovation implementation roadmap at the end of April 2012. The main goal of this roadmap is to facilitate increased public and private investment.
Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo naMalungu ale Ndlu yoWiso-mthetho neendwendwe zethu ezibalulekileyo, kungumnqa namhlanje ukuba kuthiwe sililizwe lesibini ukusuka emazantsi kwiZibalo neNzululwazi, abathi xa bakhumshayo, Maths and Science. Ilityelwe eyokuba sisuka phi sileli lizwe. Sisuka phi sileli lizwe nobu burhulumente obukhokelwa yi-ANC? Ngomhla we-17 kweyoMsintsi ngowe- 1953, wayemi apha ohloniphekileyo uH F Verwoed wathi, "Akubalulekanga ukumfundisa umntwana womntu ontsundu iZibalo neNzululwazi." [Kwaqhwatywa.]
Ndithi ke loo nto masimane sizikhumbuza ukwenzela ukuba sithi xa sibheka phambili siqinisekise ukuba zonke iinkqubo ezibekwe bobu burhulumente obukhokelwe yi-ANC, zilungisa loo monakalo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Ndiza kuthi ngumonakalo kuba namhlanje xa umzukulwana wam esiza nomsebenzi wesikolo wasekhaya esithi mandimncedise kwiZibalo neNzululwazi, andazi nto mna kuba kaloku ndingomnye waloo maxhoba aloo monakalo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] [Kwahlekwa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[Hon Chairperson, hon members of this House and esteemed guests, it is surprising to hear today that South Africa ranks second last in mathematics and Science education. It is forgotten how far we have come as a country. How far have we come as this country and the ANC-led government, one might ask? On 17 September, 1953, from this podium, hon H F Verwoerd said, "What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics and science when it cannot use it in practice?" [Applause.]
From time to time we must remind ourselves of these things so as to make sure that going forward, all programmes that are put in place by the ANC- led government redress such damage. [Applause.] I am using the word "damage" because today, when my grandchild brings mathematics and science homework, I cannot help the child because I know nothing about these subjects; I am one of the victims of the damaging impact of such educational policy. [Applause.] [Laughter.]]
The Department of Science and Technology developed a Youth into Science strategy to enhance science and technology literacy among the public in general and the youth in particular and to enrol more young people with talent and potential in science, engineering and technology-based careers.
Ndicela ukuyikhumbuza le Ndlu yoWiso-mthetho yoMzantsi Afrika ukuba ukuba andiphazami ngonyaka wama-2010 kwabakho abafana ababini abamhlophe abakha iigliders. Isizathu saloo nto yinto yokuba abazali babo babavumela ukuba badlale phaya egaraji, badibanise nantoni na abanokuthi bayidibanise. Ngaloo nto kwakukhangelwa ukuba zeziphi izakhono abanazo. Yiyo loo nto ke obu burhulumente obukhokelwa yi-ANC bunamaziko enzululwazi nobuchwepheshe, [science centres.]. Iinjongo zala maziko kukuqinisekisa ukuba njengokuba abafundisi-ntsapho, abakwangamaxhoba eBantu Education Act, No 47, 1953, eyayisithi uze ungamfundisi umntwana womntu ontsundu iZibalo neNzululwazi, kufuneka ke bahambe bakhuthazwe ukuba bazifunde ezo zifundo.
Yiyo loo nto kukho into ethi xa ikhunyushwa ngabantu bezeNzululwazi nobuChwephesha bathi yiScience Week. Ezaa Veki zeNzululwazi [science week] bantu baseMzantsi Afrika, siyikomiti yeScience and Technology sithi yiyani kuzo kuba ziza kuninceda ukuphuhlisa le ngqondo eninayo yemveli. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Ndathi xa ndimamele kumabonakude kwathiwa kukho umzobo owenziwe ngoomama bamaNdebele. Xa ujonga kwezaa zindlu bazikalikayo bezihombisa ngaloo mizobo kuthiwa zii-organic mathematicians. Kufuneka ke sizikhuthaze ezi-organic mathematicians. Aba mama basemakhaya xa behleli kufuneka sibaxelele ukuba mabaye kula maziko eNzululwazi ukwenzela ukuba bakwazi ukutshintsha ubomi babo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[I would like to remind the National Assembly that in 2010, if I am not mistaken, two white young men created gliders. Their parents had allowed them to play in the garage and use whatever they could lay their hands on to come up with something. This was a way of testing their skills. That is why the ANC-led government has science and technology centres. The purpose of these centres is to ensure that black teachers, themselves victims of the Bantu Education Act, Act No 47 of 1953, which forbade the teaching of mathematics and science to a black child, are encouraged to learn these two subjects.
That is why we have what is called the National Science Week. As the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology we encourage the South African public to participate in the National Science Week as this will help them to develop their natural intellect. [Applause.] I once saw on TV Ndebele house paintings by Ndebele women, who were referred to as "organic mathematicians". We must support these "organic mathematicians". We should also advise women who are housewives to go to science centres where they will be able to turn their lives around. [Applause.]]
Through its work, the Department of Science and Technology regards a national network of science centres as the ideal infrastructure for the delivery of science, public awareness and youth development programmes aimed at improving the quality of education outcomes.
Namhlanje kumiwe apha ngabahlobo bam abangasekunxele besithi akukho nto yenziwa ngulo rhulumunte. ISebe lezeMfundo esiSiseko linenkqubo ethi Dinaledi Schools apho thina siliSebe leNzululwazi nobuChwepheshe sincedisayo kuyo. Isizathu salonto sesokuba loo kurhulumente wathi uyawubona umonakalo abantwana bethu abakuwo. Kuyanyanzeleka ke ukuba sincedise ngokuthi sithathe izikolo esiza kuthi sizilungiselele ukuvavanywa ukuze zikwazi ukuphumelela iZibalo nezeNzululwazi. ISebe lezeNzululwazi noBuchwepheshe lenza loo nto. Kungumnqa namhlanje ukuba abahlobo bam bekomiti bangama apha bayibuze loo nto.
Kubalulekile ke, Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo weNdlu, ukuba sitsho ukuba eli sebe lisebe abathi xa bekhumsha bathi lithi- cut across all departments. Okubalulekileyo kukuba onke amasebe ayazi ukuba ukuze iimfuno zawo namagunya awo aphumelele makasondele kufutshane. Ndiyavuya xa ndimi kule ndawo, ndibabona abantwana abancinci, amantombazana namakhwenkwe eli lizwe, amadoda namankazana eli lizwe, amhlophe nantsundu, xa beze kumamela xa sisithi sibanika uxanduva lokuba babonise ilizwe ukuba, ukuba ngaba wonke umntu uyazimisela kwezeNzululwazi nezoBuchwepheshe akangekhe ahlale ecaleni kwendlu agcakamele ilanga. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
Mandenze umzekelo omncinci, kubakho into apha kuthiwe abantu baya kwaChicks. Uyakuyazi ke ohloniphekileyo uNqaba kuba usuka eBhayi. Xa besiya phaya kwaChicks, bayokuthengisa izinto abacinga ukuba azinakwenza nto. Bazithengise ngemali engekhoyo, bafumane nje i-R100. Kodwa ukuba ngaba aba bantu bebesondela phaya kula maziko enzululwazi, babone ukuba yintoni na abanokuyidibanisa nenye into kuphume into entsha onokuthi njengokuba ubuza kuthengisa le glasi nge-R100 kodwa xa idityaniswe nezinye izinto, unako ukuba ungafumana ngaphezulu kwama-R100 000. Bangacinga ke ukuba abantu ndibalisa intsomi. Yiyo ke loo nto sikhuthaza, sisithi siyavuya thina silisebe, singamaLungu ekomiti yasePalamente xa kanye eCofimvaba kuza kubakho iziko lokuphuhlisa abantu. ECofimvaba ezilalini. [Kwaqhwatywa.] ECofimvaba, apho abantu bacinga ukuba akunakuphuma nto. Apho kunokuphuma khona izazinzulu, iiNjineli, ootitshala abanokukwazi ukuba bafundise abantwana iZibalo.
Siyacela ke kwiNdlu yonke, sicela nalapha kwimibutho ephikasayo ukuba mabazi ukuba ukuphuhlisa okanye ukufundisa abantwana - phofu Sihlalo ohloniphekileyo andibaceli, ndicela umngeni apha kubo wokuba njengokuba bebenethamsanqa lokuba bona iZibalo neNzululwazi bebezifunda besebancinci, ndicela umngeni ke ngoku wokuba wonke umntwana walapha eMzantsi Afrika, ngokungakhethi bala, omhlophe nontsundu, isini okanye umgangatho wokuphila makathi xa ephuma ephakama, kwisizukulwana esilandelayo singabinengxaki yokuba ngoobani na abantu, bangaphi na abantu esinabo abazi inzululwazi obuchwepheshe.
Ixesha lutshaba, kuba ukuba besinalo ixesha besiza kuzitsho zonke sibaxele nabantu esibaziyo ukuba baye baphuhliswa bafunda besuka ezilalini. Xa ndiza kusuka mandibize intombazana enguLifukazi Ngcwangu. Ngelishwa ayizanga apha. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[Today, my friends on my left stood here and said that this government is doing nothing. The Department of Basic Education has the Dinaledi Schools project which we as the Department of Science and Technology provide assistance with. The reason we have this project is that this government realised the dire circumstances our children are in. We therefore have to assist by helping prepare schools for testing so that they can do well in mathematics and science. The Department of Science and Technology does exactly that. It is surprising that my fellow committee members can stand here and question that.
It is important, therefore, hon Chairperson, that we mention that our department is what is referred to as "cutting across all departments". What is important is for all departments to note that they have to work closely with this department in order for their needs and mandates to be fulfilled. Standing here, I am happy to see small children, girls and boys and men and women of this country, white and black, who have come to listen to us, and we challenge them to show the country that if one is serious about science and technology, one can never sit idly at home. [Applause.]
Let me just give a small example. Some people take stuff to Chicks Scrap Metal. Hon Mzwenqaba Bhanga knows about Chicks Scrap Metal because he is from Port Elizabeth. People take stuff to Chicks that they think cannot be used any more and sell it for next to nothing, let's say R100. However, if these people were to work closely with the science centres, they would learn to put these materials together to produce something more valuable that they could sell for over R100 000, instead of one material for only R100. I am not making up a story here. It is for that reason that we as the department and members of the portfolio committee are happy that there is going to be a community development centre at Cofimvaba in the rural areas, a place people do not expect to produce anything of value. [Applause.] This area can produce intellectuals and engineers, and teachers that can teach mathematics.
I appeal to the entire House, including the opposition parties - in fact, Chairperson, this is not an appeal, but a challenge to members of the opposition, because they were fortunate to be taught mathematics and science at a young age - to understand the importance of developing or educating children. Every South African child, regardless of race, gender or social class, should be taught mathematics and science so that in future we do not have problems due to small numbers of people with science and technology education.
I am running out of time, otherwise I would have quoted a few examples of people that come from rural areas that were developed in this way. Before I leave the podium, let me mention a young girl by the name of Lifukazi Ngcwangu. Unfortunately she is not here.]
When she applied to study medical technology at the Port Elizabeth Technikon at the time, she was requested to apply to the then Minister of Education to state reasons why, being a female and a black student, she wanted to study medical technology at Port Elizabeth Technikon. It took her a year and a half to receive a response. Never again! Never in this government, never again in this country, never again in Africa will children have to ask permission to study and improve their social conditions in life. [Applause.]
Masimbulele uMlawuli Jikelele, umfana omncinci, osinyamezeleyo. Siwabulele amaqela, simbulele nohloniphekileyo uSmith ngokuthi angqine ukuba eli sebe liyawenza umsebenzi omhle. Ndimcele ohloniphekileyo umhlobo wam, ... (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Let us thank the director-general, a young man, for putting up with us. We also thank the parties, including hon Smith, for concurring that the department is doing a good job. I appeal to my honourable friend ...]
... she knows I cannot pronounce her surname, but only her name - hon Juanita, that in fact she will have to understand that this department has a mammoth task, and together in science and technology, united as we have always been, we ensure that we support the Ministry. We must also ensure that we play our oversight role in such a way that this government and this country see the importance of science and technology, as outlined in the National Development Plan.
I-ANC ke xa ndime apha, ithi iyayixhasa le Voti yoHlahlo-lwabiwo-mali, imcela noMphathiswa weSebe lezeziMali ukuba akhe aphinde ajonge ukuba ugalela kangakanani na engxoweni ukwenzela ukuba isebe eli likwazi ukwenza umsebenzi walo ngokupheleleyo nangokufanelekileyo. Ndiyabulela. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[The ANC supports this Budget Vote and appeals to the Minister of Finance to consider the allocation he gives the department so that it will be able to carry out its work fully and efficiently. I thank you. [Applause.]]
Chairperson and hon members, it is really difficult to respond when so much has been said. One thing that is clear to me, however, is that the members have really worked hard and prepared themselves for this debate. I am really impressed.
It was difficult to absorb everything that everybody was saying, because these were well-researched contributions to this debate. I think the members in the gallery would have obtained lots of additional information and I am sure members in this House who are not members of the portfolio committee have found this debate enriching and fascinating. So, I want to thank the members from all parties for really making a constructive contribution to a very important debate and for doing their homework really thoroughly. I also want to thank, obviously, all members for the support they have given the Department of Science and Technology and the acknowledgement of the importance to our country of the work that is being done.
Very briefly, firstly, the chairperson of the portfolio committee, the hon Ngcobo, spent some time highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge systems. I want to thank him for that because it is one of the areas that are sometimes neglected. Sometimes, it is underappreciated. It is often regarded as a kind of pseudo-science, but we believe there really is valuable knowledge held by communities and that it needs to be valued, acknowledged, better understood and better researched, so that we can extract maximum value from this knowledge and ensure that local communities benefit from the commercialisation of their knowledge. The starting point, however, is recognising that there are knowledge-holders out there who have important knowledge. Give them due credit and make sure that, however you construct it, some benefit flows to what we regard as local community knowledge-holders.
Secondly, to the hon member Kloppers-Lourens - I do not have a lot of time, I am afraid, so I am going to have to rush through my comments. Your dedication to the work of this portfolio committee is really much appreciated. We do not disagree with some of the comments you made on education, but our approach might be a little bit different. The Minister, Naledi Pandor, is sitting there. She is also the chairperson of the ANC's committee on health and education. The matters that have been raised here are being very, very carefully debated. We agree that there has to be a greater level of accountability and responsibility taken by teachers in our society. The matter of essential service, or not, is a matter that is still being discussed. One thing that we believe is very important is keeping stakeholders on board and engaging with our social partners, including trade unions.
There are a couple of other things. In this debate - and we know there are big challenges in education - we must not neglect to acknowledge the thousands of teachers who really care about their work, who are dedicated and who often work under difficult conditions. [Applause.] Yes, they are really the salt of the earth. However, we must also appeal to teachers who neglect their responsibilities. They are not doing our country a favour, even if they exercise their right to protest as enshrined in the Constitution. Respect and dignity must be maintained at all times. Teachers are meant to be role models in our society. [Applause.] They must rise to that. They must be role models. Parents must be, too. We would like to suggest that parents are probably not taking their responsibilities as seriously as they should. I think it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that parents in our constituencies take their responsibilities more seriously.
Hon Plaatjie, thank you for a well-researched piece of work. A lot of questions will have to be answered afterwards. You touched on earth science systems. Interestingly, South Africa has ideal conditions for doing internationally important astronomy work and ideal conditions for doing work in palaeontology because of our enormously rich fossil finds. So, when it comes to earth sciences, we are, in truth, a natural laboratory.
We have everything in our country that will give the world better answers to some of the fundamental questions, including questions relating to climate change and to what is happening on our planet. So, it is not by coincidence that we chose global change as one of our five priority areas. We have such ideal conditions to do research in this important area of earth science.
In a place called Potsdam, not far from Berlin, there is an institute called the German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Helmholtz Institute for Geosciences. When we visited the institute, they said there was no country in the world that had so much to offer, as a kind of a living laboratory for researchers, as South Africa in the area of earth sciences.
To the hon Smith - where are you anyway, Peter? We are not allowed to call each other by first names, are we? [Laughter.] You are a truly valued member of the portfolio committee. Your intellect and positive contributions are always valued by the members of the portfolio committee. I would agree with most of what you say, except that mathematical literacy is not "a nonsense". I would say that we obviously want our learners to do well in mathematics and science. We need to concentrate on the quality of teaching that happens; the capabilities of our teachers. There are a number of things that we need to do in order to get better results in mathematics and science, but mathematical literacy does have value.
Hon Smith, of course we would like other departments, including Basic Education, to popularise science, but my department does science, so we need to popularise it. Dr Bernie Fanaroff, you want to use the SKA to popularise science in the minds of many young people out there, who will dream; who will one day become the astronomers; who will make Bernie a not- so-very significant figure one day. They will be getting the next Mapungubwe Orders because we nurture them. We excite them through what we are doing, hon Smith, and I think that is very important.
We must also learn to communicate our work much more effectively. Yes, we must target the 1,5% and yes, it is true, there has been a backward slide. We must take that seriously. With the work that we are doing in the tax incentives, the uptake has not been what we were hoping it would be. So, we have been working very carefully with Sars and with the Treasury to ensure that we tighten up these instruments to get better uptake, because the real decline in expenditure in research and development has been on the private- sector side. It has been a difficult period, admittedly, and of course some of the major projects, such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor and its discontinuation, had a major impact on the amount of research and development done by the private sector. Yhu! [Gosh!] This man is going to stop me very soon! [Laughter.]
Hon Ndlazi, the 23 higher-education institutions that we have in our country are now served at speeds of up to - how many gigabytes per second? A lot. A lot! [Interjections.] I thought one of you would help me! The fact of the matter is that in terms of the ICT needs of our universities and higher research institutions, we are very close to the international benchmark, and that is a fact.
Agb Alberts, ek is nie s nuut in die pos nie, weet jy? Ek was daar en ek het goeie onderwysers, soos Minister Pandor, gehad. Ek is al baie jare in die pos. Dit is net onlanks dat ek 'n Minister geword het, maar daar is nie s groot 'n verskil nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.) [Hon Alberts, I am not that new in the post, you know? I was there and I had good teachers like Minister Pandor. I have been in the post for many years now. It is only recently that I became a Minister, but there is not such a big difference.]
A lot of issues were raised about SunSpace and Information Systems (Pty) Ltd. Let me just say a couple of things. SunSpace is a private company. Yes, we had big dreams for SunSpace, and SunSpace had big ambitions. It developed very, very serious human capabilities. They had it, but unfortunately they did not get the international contracts that all of us were hoping they would get. Effectively, SunSpace became insolvent. Now, it is true, we must use our taxpayers' money responsibly. Just salvaging an insolvent company would not have been a responsible use of taxpayers' money. The decision to merge or rescue SunSpace was the right decision, but to rescue it in the right way was important. So, we - or rather, SunSpace itself - did appoint a business rescue practitioner; we put a lot of money into SunSpace and a lot of effort into rescuing the human capabilities, the human capital that is there. However, I think this is going to be a topic for discussion in the portfolio committee so that we can go through it in greater detail.
Aan die agb lid Line-Hendriks, nee, u Afrikaans is uitstekend, man! [To the hon member Line-Hendriks, no, your Afrikaans is outstanding, man!] [Interjections.]
I do not know why you apologise for your written Afrikaans because you were reading what you wrote. [Applause.] Thank you for what you said about the SKA. Thank you very much to the hon Terblanche also.
One thing we should all be mindful of, however, is that this is a global project. It is a project that has put Africa on the map such as no other scientific project has ever done. So, we must be a bit careful to avoid it becoming a local economic development project. We want the people in Carnarvon to benefit, as people in Sutherland have benefited, but we can go only so far in the local benefit. We do not want people in the rest of South Africa to say: "It brought development to Carnarvon, you know - what about the rest of us?" We have got to embrace it as a national project that puts our country on the map in the area of science and technology such as no other project has. There will be jobs - and many jobs - for engineers, for technicians, for astronomers. They are coming, but they are not all going to be located in Carnarvon, and I think you must help us manage that process. [Applause.]
I thank the hon Dunjwa for trying to wrap it all up. I think your role in the portfolio committee, keeping us all disciplined, keeping us all focused on our work, is well appreciated. Above all, I think the role of the chair of this committee - and all the members of the committee - is to ensure that it is not fraught with political in-fighting. When there are issues, there are serious issues, and we engage on those issues. Members of the opposition parties, you have really done me a disfavour here. With elections coming up, you have not given me anything to bash you on! [Laughter.] Thank you very, very much for everything you have said and done. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.