Please down. Proceed Minister.
The MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Hon
Chair, I'm ashamed ...
IsiZulu:
... ukuthi naniyobheka izintombi esazingabangani nendodana yami bese ubuya uzokhuluma kanjena nami ngimdala. [Ubuwelewele.] [Uhleko.]
English:
Hon Chair, our President, Mr Ramaphosa, Deputy President, Mr Mabuza, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, you know it would have been very better if the DA when talking about safety
in rural areas, equally emphasises safety, health and good working conditions for farmworkers as well, because often all this speech was about really it's about competing and trying to win back the votes that have been taken away by the FFP, because they seem to be doing this job much better than you.
In his opening speech on Thursday last week, our President made a seemingly innocent but yet very telling and fundamental observation, and I quote:
We gather here at an extremely difficult and challenging time in the life of our young democracy. Yet, we are also at a moment in our history that holds great hope and promise.
The President can be said also to be reminding some of us about what Karl Marx once said that: "Men make history but not under circumstances of their own choosing," yet, this must be no reason to succumb and shy away from the tasks ahead of us and to change the conditions in favour of the majority of our people. That's what is bold about the President's speech.
First of all, it admits the difficulties that we are facing, but doesn't succumb to those problems. Secondly, it provides a vision and a roadmap to tackle those problems. I also welcome the President's focus on the economy, as well as the priorities that have to be achieved. Higher Education, Science and Technology, President, will indeed aim to improve on aligning all its programmes to support the economic priorities as outlined.
Indeed, the ANC is confident, so should its President be, that it is still the best and the only organisation that is best capable to lead the effort of changing the lives of our people for the better. If you have no responsibility for governing, you can say whatever you like, what hon Carrim nicely put as populism. Also, if all that you are concerned about given the challenges that we are faced with in our country is one province, then you know that we have no responsibility to tackle these many problems that are facing the country as a whole.
Let me highlight some of the plans, the progress and gains that we have made in the area of higher education, skills
development, science and technology over the past 25 years. For example, in 1994 the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, spent about R71 million in supporting poor and mainly black students to access higher education. Yet, by 2018 this has hugely increased to R15 billion, and having benefitted more than 2 million students, most of whom being the first in the history of their families to acquire a university degree or a college certificate.
For the first time since 2016 there are more black students studying engineering at university, which is ever in the history of our country. Since 2009, government introduced NSFAS in technical and vocational education and training, Tvet, colleges with an amount of R100 million but by 2018-19 this amount has increased to R5 billion.
IsiZulu:
Ngalezi zinto esizenzayo sekwenzeke umehluko omkhulu ezimpilweni ikakhulukazi zentsha yakithi ngoba loHulumeni kaKhongolose uzimisele ukuthi izikhungo zokufunda zisebenzele ikakhulukazi intsha yakithi. Nanokuthi-ke sithi kwintsha yakithi ikakhulukazi
abafundi, uma senithole lamathuba, sicela ukuthi niwamukele ngezandla zombili niwasebenzise ekutheni nithole imfundo ngoba akekho umuntu oyoyithatha imfundo uma usunayo. Siyeke ukufuna ezithembisa imali esheshayo kodwa ezigcina zifake eningi intsha yakithi enkingeni. Imfundo yisikhathi sokugcina ukuthi intsha yakithi ikwazi ukuthi yenze imindeni yayo ibengcono, nayo ibengcono, kanye nomnotho wezwe lakithi. Kungakho uKhongolose andisa lamathuba kangaka.
English:
The department has just completed the National Plan for Post- School Education and Training, NPPSET, which will soon be released to give further impetus to these policy and goals. NPPSET is a roadmap for a more integrated, transformed, articulated and effective post-school system. I also welcome the President's focus, since ascending to office, on a development strategy and approach for our country that is based on systematic, planning and focusing on the 44 district municipalities in our country.
In the light of this, our department, therefore, aims to ensure that within the next 10 year's there will be no district municipality that would not have at least one post-school education and training institution. Our plan is to significantly expand infrastructure for Tvet colleges, including new institutions and campuses, as well as upgrading of Information and communications technology, ICT, so that our colleges become part of the modern digital era in all the 44 districts.
In line with the President's focus, over the next 10-year period, we will focus on the effectiveness and expansion of the new bursary scheme in both the university and Tvet college sectors. This will require indeed a strong partnership between government, the academic institutions as well as the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. Students from families earning up to R350 000 per annum receive comprehensive support in the form of a bursary for the duration of their studies.
Over the 2019 medium-term expenditure framework, MTEF, period, in other words, the next three years, the investment amounts on NSFAS will be R82 billion for university students and
R20,4 billion for Tvet college students. The EFF can criticise us if they want to, but you can't be blind to these achievements that have made a lot of difference to millions of young people in this country. [Applause.]
An infrastructure priority for the sixth administration also includes the development of decent, affordable student housing for universities and Tvet colleges and we will give further details on this during the Budget Votes. Safe to say that, government plans a massive investment in student accommodation. The new landscape for the Sector Education and Training Authority, SETAs, will be implemented from 1 April 2020. The aim of the new landscape is to strengthen, realign and repurpose the SETA system to support our skills development and human resource development plans.
Artisan development remains a priority while expanding workplace-based learning through learnership, work integrated learning and internships. The government will continue to strengthen what we call centres of specialisation, to ensure this; we have identified 26 Tvet colleges, we want these in the
areas in which they specialise to produce highly skilled and highly trained artisans, whether they are plumbers, welders, fitters and turners as these are very important in terms of achieving the many things that the President has outlined which need to be achieved through our economy.
We are glad to say that there are four employer associations participating in this initiative and we welcome that. Again, we must remind the EFF, I was amazed to hear that the President is being criticised that he doesn't have the influence among business that he claims to have. This is amazing. It shows that hon Carrim was right, in fact, the EFF is not a left organisation.
What make us to be able to change things is not individuals who may happen to be President; it is the waging of the class struggle to change the balance of forces on the ground. [Applause.] That is what we need to do. You can't be putting the blame on the President because we have never known, well, according to some of you like hon Shivambu, what is it to actually wage a struggle aimed at transforming the relations of
production in society, rather than taking all those problems and giving them to individuals?
It explains exactly who you are. You can't be left and without being a materialist. We welcome some commitments from the President, amongst others I quote the following:
"We will expand our high-tech industry by ensuring that the legal and regulatory framework promotes innovation, scaling up skills development for young people in new technologies, and reducing data costs."
The President also continued to say:
"We have the opportunity to be at the forefront of green growth, of low-carbon industrialisation, of pioneering new technologies and of taking quantum leaps towards the economy of the future."
President, you will be pleased to hear that already the Department of Science and Technology has actually been funding
specified programmes, undergraduate, Honours and Masters Degree students, in order to ensure that we produce students who are accessing high level skills, such that they will become part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well as the digital era.
For instance, as the Department of Science and Technology, we aim to be in the forefront and on the cutting-edge of big data analytics, so that the dream that the President is talking about is a dream for all South Africans that, indeed we can become a much better country that is in the forefront of high-level technology and digital development.
The Department of Science and Technology has already established the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research from 2011, which is a key driver for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Under your leadership, President, this year we adopted a White Paper on Science and Innovation, and in recent years, the Department of Science and Technology has also enabled the development of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, robotics, photonics and additive manufacturing.
Also, I want to invite the hon members who have got time to come and talk to us as the department; we will take you to see what we are talking about, and what kind of the potential that our country has. That's why we say that the President is not dreaming; the President is talking about some of the things that we are already doing and which we would like to build upon, so that we are able to achieve what we want to achieve. For instance, we are also supporting specific sectors.
Minister Mantashe, the Department of the Department of Science and Technology is partnering with the Minerals Councils of South Africa, MCSA, in implementing the SA Mining Extraction Research, Development and Innovation, SAMERDI, strategy. Also, the department has bioeconomy strategy aimed at supporting agriculture by boosting innovation to ensure food security.
The government has already initiated a project to ensure that by 2021 all universities and Tvet college campuses are connected to high-speed broadband connectivity. A national Open Learning System is being developed, which is aimed at improving access to high-quality learning materials and resources.
President, I would like to conclude by saying, by combining the Departments of Higher Education and Training with Science and Technology, you have opened huge opportunities to place our country on to a much higher plane in terms of better coordination between what higher education institutions are doing, as well as the science councils.
As the ANC, we end by calling upon our allies, labour, business and civil society, especially the workers and the poor to rollout their sleeves to realise our dream of a better South Africa for all in the true style of 'thuma mina.' Thank you. [Applause.]