M Mangena: TCI Conference on Indigenous Knowledge System

26 July 2006

It gives me great pleasure this morning to be here among an array of
experts, scientists, holders and practitioners of Indigenous Knowledge System
(IKS) on the occasion of a historic conference and to present the keynote
address. It is always a pleasure for me to interact with those who have
contributed substantially to bolster indigenous knowledge in this country. It
is an important occasion when experts of IKS come together on one platform to
share thoughts and visions about IKS and more importantly, about the central
theme of the workshop namely “Protecting Indigenous Knowledge Systems.”

It is always important to be reminded that endeavours such as this
conference is not an end in itself. The conference on the protection of
indigenous knowledge must remind Africans that they must take responsibility
for their own fate and chart an African development path. The quest for an
African rebirth should be driven by the following principles:
(1) the art and quality of being human, i.e. ubuntu,
(2) the promotion of indigenous African heritage and
(3) the promotion of Africa and its people.

The protection and promotion of African indigenous knowledge systems will
contribute to the task of charting an African development path. IKS gives us
the keys to self-discovery and true emancipation which are prerequisites to
human creativity and action. The potential role of indigenous knowledge in
releasing the human creativity and innovation should be tapped for the
realisation of Africa’s reconstruction. This conference has the challenge of
coming up with ways of realising the potential of IKS for reconstruction and
the combating of poverty.

African indigenous knowledge is central to the concept of an African
Renaissance. It is the knowledge system that informs how African society
functions and interacts with people and societies; it provides the founding
motivator for people’s actions and the knowledge base for learning and Africa’s
sustainable development.

Ladies and gentlemen: you aware that Cabinet in 2004 adopted the IKS policy
signalling a defining moment in the lives of indigenous and local communities.
The policy therefore, in its entity endeavours to contribute to the
consolidation of our constitutional democracy and the improvement of the lives,
dignity and equality of our indigenous and local communities by giving concrete
expression to the recognition, promotion, development and protection of
indigenous knowledge systems. It is envisioned that the policy will be the
enabling instrument for indigenous and local communities to exercise their
sovereign and inalienable rights, over their indigenous knowledge and related
intellectual and cultural knowledge.

A momentous implementation of key imperative of the policy is the recent
establishment of the national office on IKS or NIKSO. NIKSO is constituted of
three programmatic strands namely advocacy and policy development, knowledge
development and knowledge management.

What I would like to indicate at this juncture is that with the
establishment of NIKSO it has positioned South Africa on the threshold of a new
era of growth. The growth engine for this new dawn is knowledge development and
knowledge management. There is no denying the fact that the knowledge of
individuals and the collective knowledge of communities are the only real
competitive advantages that any country can rely upon to develop. Given our
diversity and the varying levels of economic and social development, the
technological needs of our country are also diverse. The challenge before us is
to bring about synergy in our actions in terms of indigenous and western
knowledge, so that knowledge generation and utilisation benefits all segments
of our society without causing disparities or lopsided development. This is why
government has placed a great degree of emphasis on the implementation of the
IKS policy which will significantly protect, develop and promote IKS and will
help improve livelihoods and economic well-being to communities by ensuring
equitable and fair benefit sharing.

The most obvious truth is that to recognise indigenous knowledge system on
its own terms, we indeed have to mainstream IKS. NIKSO is strongly committed in
rolling out a robust advocacy and public awareness strategy. The quintessential
issues of concern that require policy advocacy is the need to integrate IKS
with other knowledge systems. The mainstreaming of IKS in National System of
Innovation (NSI) will considerably change the landscape. Another crucial
challenge for NIKSO is to strategically embed IKS within the NSI. This will
necessarily entail establishing partnerships with Research and Development
(R&D) institutions, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Trusts and
Science Councils.

I am pleasantly informed that the strategy also proposes some specific
intervention such as hosting a national IKS public awareness week and hosting a
competition for the best Indigenous Knowledge (IK) projects for poverty
alleviation amongst other exciting and creative projects. It is well recognised
that the proposed priority outcomes of the public awareness campaign requires a
joint venture between you as key stakeholders and NIKSO. I therefore humbly
plead with you to be joint partners in the rollout process of the campaign.

As I have already mentioned one of the fundamental principles in IKS is
knowledge development which must be rooted within National Systems of
Innovation (NSI). The NIKSO therefore pledges to establish an advisory
committee to advise the Minister on how to best mainstream IKS. One of the
priority areas that the Committee will advise on is the protection of knowledge
developed on IKS. The Department is in the process of establishing IKS centres,
chairs and laboratories. These institutions will form part of the main
knowledge development entities in South Africa.

It is also critical that as you deliberate on these issues, you bear in mind
the importance of developing and protecting new epistemologies. As scholars or
researchers, I urge you to be sensitive to the rich knowledge that is preserved
within our communities. Be equal partners in developing it further together
with holders and practitioners. This should be done in light of building
capacity among our people in order to generate adequate human capital for
economic development and improved quality of life.

I would like to call to your attention those IK holders and practitioners
who are giving birth to valuable products in the country. These include
medicines and healing modalities, jewellery and different articles of adornment
and decoration, art, literature, music, entrepreneurship, food security,
methods of investigation, etc. Embedded in the lives of these IK holders is a
wealth of knowledge that needs to be well nourished, documented and
disseminated. This information is crucial for generating further research
questions. This will then inform policy and various intervention strategies for
sustainable development.

The NIKSO is committed to co-ordinating various efforts in full
collaboration with IK holders and practitioners, researchers, IKS chairs,
non-governmental organisations (NGOS), community-based organisations (CBOs),
government departments and our regional and international partners. NIKSO is
sensitive towards developing and implementing IK and IKS ownership processes in
South Africa. Without any apology, NIKSO is dedicated to ensuring that
Interface Products (IP), patent and issues including benefit sharing are fully
implemented.

These discussions require full participation of the owners of this knowledge
and the systems involved. I trust that meetings of this nature will in the
future involve various knowledge holders from different areas of expertise so
that they can speak for themselves. This is one of the universal principles for
ensuring that IK protection and processes involved are developed and managed by
the owners of the knowledge.

I now turn the focus to the central theme of the conference namely the
Protection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (PIKS). The focus on protection of
IK heralds a long overdue move by government to recognise IKS. In accentuating
the importance of IKS, government has targeted the redressing of imbalanced
legacies through the provision of Acts and policies. I am pleasantly informed
that the amendments to the Patent Act have been approved. Under these
amendments mandatory disclosure requirements exists which empowers the
Registrar of Patents to:
* refuse the granting of patents based on biological or genetic materials if
the origin of such materials is not disclosed
* refuse the granting of patents based on indigenous knowledge, but there is no
disclosure as to the origin of such indigenous knowledge
* refuse the granting of patents based on indigenous knowledge, but there is no
prior informed consent from the indigenous people possessing such
knowledge
* refuse the granting of patents based on indigenous knowledge, if
co-ownership, control, use and benefit sharing arrangements are not in
place
* rescind the patent on own accord if it is later discovered that the
aforementioned issues were not entertained or there was an element of
misrepresentation or fraud on the part of the patentee.

This piece of legislation developed by the Department of Trade and Industry
affirms indigenous and local communities as the true owners of their knowledge
and that disputes over rights to the acquisition and commercialisation
application of this knowledge is resolved in accordance with the regulations
currently developed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in
compliance with chapter six of the Biodiversity Act. In the context of these
regulations the degree to which indigenous and local communities receive fair
and equitable benefits will depend on the extent to which:
* they are fully informed about the commercial value of their knowledge and
about the potential commercial value of their knowledge and about the legal
consequences of any agreements they may make with outsiders.

Ladies and gentlemen, you can observe that it is not only the Department of
Science and Technology but other government departments that are legitimising
indigenous knowledge on its terms by creating authoritative enabling
environments for the internal development and articulation of all domains of
IKS.

However, international agreements under the United Nations (UN) agencies
that have contributed thus far to the evolution of intellectual property-style
protections for indigenous and local knowledge do not “finish the job.”
Therefore, as government for the immediate future the focus regarding the
protection for indigenous and local knowledge will have to shift to the level
of domestic legislation and policymaking.

Distinguished participants, ladies and gentleman, I truly believe that the
only way to solve the challenges allude to above is to engender a common
determination and a genuine desire to co-operate closely. The starting point is
to believe that it is fair to give protection to IK. With this common belief,
we will be able to use property laws to protect our common heritage in the form
of IK. We are also witnessing common attempts at international fora to protect
indigenous knowledge in the form of international instruments. With these
collective efforts IK will surely be protected from exploitation, misuse and
misappropriation. The knowledge workers should not relax they need to double up
their efforts to develop, manage and protect indigenous knowledge. It calls for
vigilance and urgency of purpose.

In closing I would like once again to thank you for giving me this
opportunity to address you this morning. I hope that you will address and
debate some of these ideas in the thematic groups over the next few days. I
also hope that this historic meeting will provide you with opportunities to
establish professional and other links and networks that are so essential to
the central theme of the workshop. I wish you great success in your
deliberations and I will definitely through NIKSO make a point of following up
on your recommendations.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
26 July 2006