Speech by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Mr Buti Manamela, on the occasion of the Department of Science and Innovation Budget Vote presentation
[Honourable House Chairperson; our Minister Dr Blade Nzimande; Chairperson of our portfolio committee, Ms Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, together with members of the Committee; our DG, Dr Phil Mjwara; together with all the officials and entities of the DSI]
I join the Minister in presenting this Budget Vote Speech under the theme ‘Using Science, Technology, and Innovation To Grow Our Country and Together Resolve Its challenges’.
This is the last budget of the term of the sixth administration, and the penultimate before we observe the 30th Anniversary of our liberation as a country.
We are also presenting this budget two days before the commemoration of Africa Day, and in doing so, we locate our Department and its agencies within the broader context of moving Africa’s Agenda 2063 forward within the framework of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
There is no denying that although much has been done over the last 29 years, the challenges of poverty, unemployment, gender-based violence and energy supply persistent.
Science, Technology, and Innovation remain critical in dealing with these major challenges.
As the pollical leadership, we have to answer the question: How has the democratic state used science, technology, and innovation to improve the people’s quality of life, especially our youth?
Informed by the National Development Plan and our White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation and our Science, Technology, and Innovation Decadal Plan, over the period under review, we have made several interventions that are aimed at improving our people’s lives.
These include:
- Championing the development of local diagnostics products in response to COVID-19, ultimately approved by SAPHRA, and made by CapeBio (which spun out of CSIR) and Medical DiagnosTech;
- Our investment in BioEconomy focused on indigenous innovations, including supporting a Women Co-operative, Setsong Tea Crafters, in Sekhukhune- which now has an off-take agreement with retail giant Food Lovers Market;
- Last year we were able to launch 4 nanosatellites dedicated to our Oceans and Coastal Information Management Systems (OCIMS), supporting our economic sovereignty at sea;
- We are now host of the Regional Centre for Space Weather, through SANSA. This puts us at the centre of global aviation safety as we provide important data relevant not only for aviation but protection of communication and electricity distribution infrastructure;
- We are also proud that last year we renewed our lunar exploration partnership with NASA, the US space Agency;
- In 2021, we were given the responsibility to support the building of vaccine Manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries through the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, and in a short space of time we developed a vaccine candidate that is undergoing various pre-clinicals.
- Last night in Geneva, on the side-lines of the World Health Assembly, this was celebrated by the international community, signalling our readiness to manufacture life-saving vaccines if the next pandemic hits.
- As part of modernising manufacturing through Advance Manufacturing Initiative, we were able to manufacture locally the life-saving ventilators during Covid-19, relying on our technology stations and to utilise our project management capabilities of the SKA programme.
By all accounts these are remarkable achievements for a democracy that is less than 30 years old and located in a continent condemned for doom.
Protecting the dignity of indigenous knowledge systems
One of the objectives of the colonial project was to entrench the falsity that, when the European encountered Africans, we as Africans had no concept of science or capacity to engage in higher forms of thought such as philosophy, mathematics or logic.
To counter what is now known as the coloniality of knowledge, over the years, our department put in place policy and institutional mechanisms that are deliberately aimed at protecting and promoting our indigenous knowledge systems.
One of the ways we continue doing this is the roll-out of our Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Degree at the universities of Venda and the North West.
To date, approximately 300 hundred students have graduated in this field. Plans are afoot to increase the number of universities offering this qualification.
We will continue to ensure that indigenous technologies in mining and astronomy are promoted within our communities, including a Smart Village pilot in Nyandeni, Eastern Cape, through a project that earned itself recognition from UNESCO earlier this year.
Human capital development for young people
Part of ensuring we have the requisite number of scientists, researchers and innovators is by deliberately producing a critical mass of young black and women scientists and researchers. To this end, in 2021/22, a total of 5 643 honours and master's students, and 2 527 PhD students were supported.
We remain steadfast to meet our target of awarding 12 000 PhD bursaries in the 2019-2024 MTEF, with 7 253 PhD students already achieved.
In a budget debate that is likely to shun good news, it may be important to note that by end of June 2022, we had had supported 17 211 Master’s and Honours students, seven thousand short of the 24 000 target that we committed at the beginning of this Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
This is not all.
In the 2021 academic year we commenced with the implementation of the DSI-NRF full-cost-of-study support for three categories of postgraduate students, benefitting more than two-thirds of first-time funded postgraduate students.
After the floods that swept parts of the Western Cape, KZN and Eastern Cape, and the role that space science played in geo-mapping and helping disaster management interventions with efficient response capacity, we cannot over-emphasise the role that agencies such as the South African National Space Agency play in impacting the lives of our people.
Through SANSA, we have supported 285 postgraduate students at Honours, Masters and PhD level, during the period 2018 to date, with a total of 58 in 2023 alone, so that we can beef up their capacity and that of the country in the work that the do.
We also commend SANSA for hosting interns the technical as well as support fields and call on science graduates to look out for these opportunities.
Youth entrepreneurship as a catalyst for science, technology, and innovation
We have positioned our department as an anchor to support the use of science, technology, and innovation for youth entrepreneurship. Our lead in research, development, and innovation of the Cannabis Industrialisation Master Plan is one of the initiatives that seeks to achieve this.
We have led, together with the CSIR in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the support of twenty SMMEs for product development.
In 2023/24 the focus will be on high-end medicinal products and through the youth skills development programme CoachLab, we enabled 59 indigenous knowledge holders from 40 SMMEs to graduate.
Enhancing public understanding of science, technology, and innovation
With the advent of COVID-19, just as is the case with any pandemic, the proliferation of disinformation through fake news became entangled with scientific knowledge, and in some parts of the world, conspiracy theories triumphed-taking advantage of people’s lack of grasp in scientific knowledge.
This was perpetuated by the mainstream media’s lack of appreciation of the importance to understand science, and present it in such a way that everyone can appreciate its value and therefore, SAVE LIVES.
We are working hard to reverse this.
One of the facilities that is central to our work of promoting public understanding of science, technology and innovation is the Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu Science Centre in Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape, which has revolutionised the way science centres engage with the public.
Scientists from the CSIR are working with 25 learners from St James and Cofimvaba Secondary Schools to monitor the performance of technologies at the science centre. The learners from these two schools are collecting and uploading data on the performance of technologies at the science centre, bridging the gap between scientists and citizens.
As part of improving our science engagement efforts we will be strengthening the capacity of the NRF's South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA). This is to enable its mandate of coordinating public engagement.
We are also pleased to announce that the first DSI-initiated Postgraduate Diploma in Science Communication will be offered at the University of Limpopo.
This will help develop basic science communication skills in scientists and science communication intermediaries such as journalists, educators and science interpreters.
Strengthening collaboration in Africa
As part of our work in the continent, we have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation, covering areas such as Space Science and the Hydrogen Economy.
Further to this, through our bilateral and research cooperation between the CSIR and the Ugandan Industrial Research Institute, there will be an up-scaling of the essential oils project.
This Project has resulted in two demonstrator farms and 40 people in Uganda receiving training on the essentials oil value chain.
Together with Ghana and Ethiopia, we participated in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa study on advancing entrepreneurial universities in Africa through our participation in the Alliance of Entrepreneural Universities in Africa. The Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University and Stellenbosch University are part of this project.
We are proud to announce that South Africa is the coordinator of the Alliance Working Group, and more than 30 institutions in the continent have become members.
Working with UN Women, International Telecommunication Union and the African Union Commission, we are implementing the African Girls Can Code Initiative.
This is a four-year programme that aims to expose and equip young girls with digital literacy, coding and personal development skills, targeting a minimum of 2 000 girls between 17 and 25 years by 2023.
In conclusion, behind all these figures and statistics we have shared here today, are human beings, families and communities, whose expectation is that this budget will indeed impact their lives in a fundamental way.
If any of the political parties here tell you that they oppose this budget, then there can be only one conclusion: such political parties are opposed to the people, do not understand the impact that science have on the people, and are bent on undermining the transformational and reformative impact that the budget has on the future of our country.
This Budget embodies the needs, interests and aspirations of the people.
Most importantly, through this Budget, we seek to help restore the hope among our people that, despite our challenges, we must continue to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Thank you for listening.
