Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, chairperson of the committee, members of the science community, friends, Minister Pandor has given us a comprehensive overview of the direction that our national system of innovation will take over the next five years.
The work of the Department of Science and Technology is exceptional in its diversity, and my intention today is merely to take a quick look at a few of the areas in which we are involved. I believe this will give hon members a better sense of the range and relevance of the many things we do and the way we work in partnership with other institutions.
But let us first be reminded of President Zuma's inspiring words at his inauguration:
This is indeed a moment of renewal. It is an opportunity to rediscover that which binds us together as a nation. The unity of our nation should be a priority for all sectors of our society. We are a people of vastly different experiences, of divergent interests, with widely different views. Yet we share a common desire for a better life, and to live in peace and harmony. We share a common conviction that never shall we return to a time of division and strife. From this common purpose, we must forge a partnership for reconstruction, development and progress.
This clarion call by the President, for us to work together so that we can achieve more, resonates strongly in the area of science and technology. As much as science and technology is one of the greatest sources of progress and development, it cannot operate in isolation as some mysterious process only understood by scientists. It is only through real and sustained partnerships that science and technology will assume its full relevance and make the critical move from the laboratory to the community.
To achieve this, the department is working in close co-operation with a number of government departments and municipalities as well as with private- sector institutions. I would like to highlight a few of these collaborative projects. Improving our health services and confronting the burden of preventable diseases was identified as one of the priority areas in the ANC manifesto, and the toughest scientific challenge of them all is bringing the scourge of HIV and Aids under control.
The excellent work done by the Human Sciences Research Council and various other organisations in monitoring HIV prevalence and incidence in the South African population helps us understand whether our interventions are having any effect and where we should be applying our energies and resources.
The recently released results of their 2009 survey on HIV prevalence and related behaviour indicate that there is a substantial decrease in HIV prevalence among children and a decrease in new infections in teenagers. However, the increased prevalence of HIV in young women in their twenties is alarming. This, once again, stresses the urgency of intensifying our efforts to find new prevention technologies and strategies that will enable young women to protect themselves against HIV infection.
We certainly cannot afford the luxury of fragmented work or duplicated effort in the fight against this devastating virus. After thorough consultation with researchers and scientists, the department established the SA HIV/Aids Research and Innovation Platform, which will focus on funding research on antiretrovirals, microbicides, vaccines, diagnostic tools and human behaviour.
Hon Kalyan, we would like to have the opportunity to engage with you on the reasons for departing from the funding arrangement we had with the SA HIV/Aids Research and Innovation Platform. There are reasons for it, and we will talk to you a bit more about the background to the creation of this platform and the value that this platform will bring. We look forward to that engagement with you in the near future.
We can also be proud of the international recognition that we are receiving for our investments in biotechnology. As an article in last month's issue of Nature Biotechnology says:
South Africa is well positioned to address diseases of the developing world. South Africa also has the potential to develop niche health products for global markets, drawing on its R&D base, expertise in first- generation biotech and great biodiversity.
The Scientific American Worldview cites South Africa as one of the world's top 10 countries in the area of biotechnology enterprise support, owing largely to the efforts and investments made by the department in implementing the National Biotechnology Strategy.
The department's Ten-Year Innovation Plan for South Africa recognises the development of the bioeconomy as a grand challenge, and our country's biodiversity and indigenous knowledge should provide ample opportunities for the development of food and pharmaceutical products. Rural communities will be able to share in the benefits of the bioeconomy by growing the required raw materials. However, our country does not currently have an organised, accessible pipeline for the drug discovery or bioprospecting value chain, which starts with natural products and existing herbal medicines and moves through animal trials to clinical trials. The Department of Science and Technology is, therefore, driving the establishment of two national platforms: the bioprospecting platform, and the preclinical drug-development platform, in collaboration with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Already, we have initiated four bioprospecting and product-development flagship projects around traditional medicines, cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals and ceramics, and registered a Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems degree. This degree is the first of its kind in the world. [Applause.]
Our efforts to bridge the digital divide and use technology to bring better services to the people, especially in rural areas, are best demonstrated through the telemedicine workstations developed under the Telemedicine Lead Programme, a joint project of the Medical Research Council and the University of Stellenbosch. To date, 10 telemedicine stations have been installed, and we expect to install 50 more by the end of the year. [Applause.]
Guided by the ICT Research, Development and Innovation Strategy, we continue to address key needs in education, health and rural development.
The department has taken its wireless mesh network project to the next level by developing three large-scale demonstrators in Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape and Limpopo. This wireless mesh network is a communications network which allows buildings that are in line of sight of each other, even if they are separated by more than seven kilometres, to be linked with broadband connectivity for both Internet access and voice communication at a very low cost and without the need for centralised infrastructure such as high masts or base stations. Very large areas can be provided with broadband connectivity using this technology, and this national project aims to give communities, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas, the opportunity to become computer-literate and to access information to meet their particular needs.
Our Digital Doorway project remains an effective tool for developing computer literacy, providing information to people who don't have their own computers and assisting with out-of-school learning. To date, we have installed 220 units at various locations across the country.
Hon members will be pleased to learn that, in an effort to address the developmental priority of creating sustainable settlements, we have research projects under way at the CSIR to develop construction technologies for affordable, sustainable, high-quality housing for middle- to low-income groups. [Applause.]
Construction for the energy-efficient housing project in the Buffalo City and Overstrand Municipalities is well under way, and we are planning launches in both municipalities by September this year.
The department's focus on sustainable human settlements involves the application of science and technology to reduce the costs of service delivery, increase communities' access to services and improve people's quality of life.
With regard to rural development, although the Millennium Development Goals relating to the provision of water and sanitation have been met, Statistics SA's 2007 Community Survey shows that 11% of South Africans still do not have a reliable supply of drinking water. These people generally live in remote, mostly inaccessible, rural areas or dense, informal settlements in peri-urban areas, and rely on untreated water from springs, rivers or dams, often sharing their water resources with animals.
In response to this challenge, the department, in partnership with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, and the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and with support from our science councils, has launched a project to accelerate the delivery of water services using innovative, sustainable technologies.
These technologies will be applied first at the rivers from which communities traditionally fetch water, where communal water stations will be installed. Boreholes will also be used, and ceramic filters installed in individual households. Skills transfer will be important, as the community will be responsible for using and managing these technologies to ensure the quality of the water they drink.
The first phase of this project is being implemented in the OR Tambo and Amathole District Municipalities, and its target is to provide over 2 500 households with a reliable supply of safe drinking water by the middle of next year. [Applause.]
As Minister Pandor has indicated, the application of science, technology and innovation is vital to sustained economic growth and the retention and creation of jobs in a challenging economic climate.
Two years ago, we committed ourselves to assisting South Africa's fresh fruit industry to sustain and improve its position in the highly competitive global market. In partnership with the Agricultural Research Council and the Fresh Fruit Exporters' Forum, the department established the Post-Harvest Innovation Programme, aimed at developing the industry's innovation capabilities. The programme has made it possible to plug a range of technology gaps, in areas such as post-harvest disease control, fruit quality assessment, and integrated packaging solutions. This includes the development of new biodegradable fruit cartons, made from natural fibre- reinforced biocomposites, to address the European market's demand for nonplastic packaging.
The programme has also instituted a range of technology transfer initiatives, including a strategic partnership with the Chilean fresh fruit industry. During the year, we will be investigating the expansion of this programme in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
We are currently also engaging with the R30 billion South African meat industry about developing interventions aimed at improving its competitiveness and export markets.
This time next year 32 soccer teams from all over the globe will be in our country for the biggest sporting event in the world, bringing 450 000 fans to support them. They will discover not only a country of extraordinary beauty and warmth, but also the land of their early ancestors.
Furthermore, the rich fossil sites we have in our country led to the identification of palaeontology as an area of geographic advantage in the National Research and Development Strategy. Given the outstanding palaeontology work South Africans are doing, we could equally call this an area of knowledge advantage.
Dr Jennifer Botha-Brink of the National Museum in Bloemfontein has discovered the almost complete 230-million-year-old skeleton, over three metres long, of an early crocodilian, which is on display at the museum.
New, internationally significant, fossil discoveries by scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand will soon be published. Professor Bruce Rubidge, working with his Chinese counterpart Dr Liu Jun, has discovered the oldest known therapsid, a mammal-like reptile, and Dr Adam Yates has discovered a new species of dinosaur.
Professor Lee Berger - and this is perhaps the biggest of them all - also of the University of the Witwatersrand, has made new fossil hominin discoveries that will soon become the centre of worldwide attention, as they are of unprecedented significance in the research of early human origins. Dr Berger's work was supported by the department through the Palaeontological Scientific Trust.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasise that I have touched on only a few examples of the partnerships entered into by the Department of Science and Technology, DST. One could mention many more examples, but there isn't enough time to do so. We could talk about the electric car, which we mentioned a year ago, and which will now, subsequently, be launched. We could talk about nanotechnology, climate change, and aquaculture. We are working in all of these fields. With regard to satellites, we have our own South African-designed and manufactured low-earth orbiting satellite that will be launched in the near future. This is the Sumbandila Sat. We can even talk about work being done by individual members in this House - like this man opposite me, Dr Wilmot James. I hope we get the opportunity, Dr James, for you to present your work to the committee at some point, because it is fascinating work indeed.
Just as Bafana Bafana demonstrated last night - I presume you were all watching that new form of technology called a television last night - that team effort can produce splendid results, so the Department of Science and Technology is showing that by working together, in partnership, so much more can be achieved.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the officials in the department for the hard work and dedication that has made these innovative projects possible, particularly the management team, steered by our Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara. It is also important to me personally to salute the previous Minister of Science and Technology, Comrade Mosibudi Mangena, for his calm and prudent leadership of the department in the past five years. [Applause.] I look forward to a similarly good working relationship with my colleague and close comrade, the hon Naledi Pandor, who I am sure will build on our achievements and take the department to new heights in our quest to provide a better life for all our people.
Lastly, we would like to congratulate hon members - that's you sitting here - of the portfolio committee, firstly, on having been elected to serve our country as Members of Parliament. It's a huge honour. Secondly, I would like to congratulate them on having made the smart choice to serve on this exciting committee. To Dr Ngcobo: welcome back dear comrade; we know that your passion lies with science and technology. I thank you.