Programme Director, Dr Molope
His Royal Highness Kgosi Pilane (the host), Bakgatla–Ba-Kgafela Community;
North West Premier, Ms Thandi Modise;
Mayor of the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, Clr Fetsang Mokati-Thebe;
Mayor of Bojanala District Municipality, Clr L Diremelo;
Inkosi Wiseman Sithole; KZN Provincial House of Traditional Leaders Organisation;
Inkosi Mkhwanazi, Mkhwanazi Community;
Inkosi Tembe, Mhlabuyalingana Community;
Kgosi Sinthumule, Sinthumule Community;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen.
The local knowledge that has been passed on orally from generation to generation is a vital part of a nation's heritage. In South Africa indigenous knowledge has massive potential for research, development, innovation and social cohesion. It has attracted the attention of many people, in both developed and developing countries.
In 2004 South Africa adopted the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Policy, which focuses on the recognition, promotion, development, protection and affirmation of indigenous knowledge systems, or IKS. The policy provides the foundation for bringing together key drivers for the development and economic viability of holders and practitioners of IKS.
Indigenous knowledge offers great opportunities, not only to those who use it in their daily lives, but also to researchers, government agencies and commercial firms, both foreign and domestic. Indigenous knowledge is mostly stored in the memories of practitioners and holders and is passed down through the generations by word of mouth. This makes Indigenous Knowledge vulnerable to rapid change and loss.
The oral nature of indigenous knowledge has also resulted in widespread misuse, misappropriation and biopiracy. This has been seen recently in the pelargonium, rooibos and honeybush cases. This is why effective strategies must be formulated and implemented to ensure the future protection, development and management of our IKS.
One of these strategies is the documentation and recording of IKS. The urgency of documenting indigenous knowledge in South Africa is underscored by the fact that we are often lose our respected elders, before their indigenous knowledge has been recorded. It is often said that, when an old person dies in Africa, a whole library disappears.
The need to document and record indigenous knowledge is recognised internationally. India has developed a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. This Library acts as a bridge between the indigenous knowledge information existing in local languages and the patent examiners at international patent offices. This helps to prevent the granting of wrongful patents.
The need to document indigenous knowledge is also recognised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Through the Creative Heritage Project it has identified best practices and developed guidelines to assist communities and cultural institutions to manage intellectual property and to preserve and protectcultural heritage against misappropriation and misuse.
The uniqueness of our National Recordal System is that it takes into consideration both the policy objectives of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library and the Creative Heritage Project. It allows for the recording of indigenous knowledge in the local languages.
The implementation of our National Recordal System includes the establishment of indigenous knowledge networks, provincial documentation centres and an information and communication technology knowledge platform. Indigenous knowledge documentation centres facilitate the collection of indigenous knowledge within communities and store it in the National Indigenous Knowledge Management System, or NIKMAS, a repository aimed at managing access to the documented knowledge.
Five documentation centres have already been established in the country to record indigenous knowledge. I would like to acknowledge all the communities that are participating in this initiative and who thus ensure that their knowledge is protected for the benefit of themselves and others. Representatives of these communities are her and I ask them to please stand up so that we can publicly acknowledge you.
First, the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela community, who are participating through the North West documentation centre.
I also acknowledge the Mkwanazi, uMhlabuyalingana and Inkandla communities in KwaZulu-Natal, who are working with the IKS documentation centre established at the University of Zululand Science Centre.
The other documentation centres are located at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban); the Vuwani Science Centre in Limpopo; the Tsengiwe community in the Eastern Cape; the ThabaNchu community in the Free State, and the Tshwane Forum managed by the Indigenous Knowledge Systems of South Africa Trust.
It is the aim of the Department to establish an IKS documentation centre in the Western Cape in the 2013/14 financial year.
We envisage that by 2015/16 all nine provinces will host a centre to facilitate the capturing, cataloguing, validation, preservation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge in participating communities.
The recording of knowledge, associated with biological resources, preserves our biodiversity and protects the environment. The commercialisation of the products will not happen if the indigenous knowledge relating to the products is not recorded and documented.
The National Recordal System has the capability to bring information from various databases together, enhancing the research, development and innovation capabilities of the National System of Innovation.
The protection of IKS is a shared task and the National Recordal System is an interdepartmental instrument. It will provide a variety of services to government departments like Health, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Arts and Culture, Basic Education, Higher Education and Training, and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as well as state agencies such as the South African Bureau of Standards, the CSIR, the Agricultural Research Council; and the Medical Research Council.
Let me share with you two examples of how other government departments will use the NRS.
The Department of Trade and Industry's Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, will use the system for prior art patent searches, making it a key element in preventing biopiracy and the granting of patents in error.
For the Department of Environmental Affairs, the National Recordal System will create legal certainty, as it will provide a legal benefit-sharing framework and assist in the identification and location of knowledge holders in the bioprospecting permit granting process.
It is also envisaged that the Recordal System will play a key role in the implementation of the Bioeconomy Strategy for South Africa. As we begin to build this knowledge hub, the importance of provincial participation cannot be emphasised enough. Provinces are central to integrated development plans for local economic development. We need to take joint ownership of this initiative if we want to ensure that the quality of life of our indigenous and local communities is improved.
Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot protect or use our rapidly disappearing indigenous knowledge until it has been recorded. Each one of you here today can benefit from the National Recordal System in some way. I call upon all of you to support this initiative and make it your own.
Baagi ba Moruleng, Bokone Bophirima, kare ma Afrika Borwa, bana ba thari e ntsho a re ipeleng ka kitso ya rona ya se Afrika, re itse go ipetlela ditaola, e bile moseka phofu wa gaabo, ga a ile go swa lentswe.
A pula ya maebana e le nele bana ba mmala wa sibilo. Pula… Bakgatla……..
Translation
People of Moruleng, North West province, I am saying, South Africans…People of the land, let us be proud of our indigenous knowledge, let us know how to craft our own destiny as the say: “Africans must not be apologetic of being Africans/Africans must never give up on the fight for our own identity.”
Thank you.
