D Hanekom: Science and Technology Dept Budget Vote 2007/08

25 May 2007

Chairperson
Honourable members

Minister Manuel reminded us in his budget speech said that the budget is an
instrument in our hands to achieve our own defined objectives. As you may
recall the theme, "all human beings are of equal worth" ran through his
speech.

The significant increase in Departments budget reflects our government's
recognition of the importance of science and technology. It would be impossible
for us to achieve our growth targets and ensure a life of dignity and equal
worth for our citizens without applying the best of our scientific expertise
towards finding solutions to the critical challenges facing us.

In an increasingly competitive world, economic growth has to be knowledge
driven. The knowledge we generate has to provide answers to everyday needs in
areas such as health, energy, food security, water and sanitation. And we have
to be guided by good science to protect our rich biodiversity: our rivers, our
animals and our plants.

We know that this is the path that you, honourable members, want us to
follow. We are on that path and although we still have a long way to travel, we
will never steer away from it.

By its very nature most of our work involves partnerships with a number of
other departments. I would like to give just a few examples of this
collaboration and at the same time illustrate how the sciences of
nanotechnology and biotechnology have almost unimaginable potential to provide
solutions to the challenges we are grappling with.

Improving the quality of life of our people is our ultimate goal. Without
good health this is not possible so I'll start by touching on some of our
interventions in the area of health.

Health

Our health challenge can never be narrowed down to a single disease, but few
would deny that our biggest single challenge today is HIV and AIDS.

In support of the New Strategic Plan, Department of Science and Technology
(DST) is investing in a number of biotechnology ventures that have the
potential to make a major contribution to our fight against AIDS and we may be
on the verge of significant breakthroughs.

On the prevention side, LIFElab, one of the Biotechnology Innovation Centres
is supporting research on microbicide gels that have the potential to be far
more effective than condoms in preventing HIV infection in women.

The Institute of Diagnostic Research is developing novel products and tools
for the diagnosis of HIV and malaria. And perhaps most exciting of all we are
investing in the development of novel treatments for HIV and AIDS.

A company called Elevation Biotech is using discoveries made by our own
researchers to develop peptides as HIV entry inhibitors. The early laboratory
results have shown that the science is sound and it works. Discoveries like
these have potential to not only offer more effective treatment than is
currently available, but could also position South Africa as a key player on
the global pharmaceutical market.

Our vision is that one day we will see the complete spectrum of HIV
prevention, diagnosis, management and treatment, using products developed,
produced and supplied by South African companies.

The work done by the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative, in collaboration
with key national and international partners, to produce an affordable,
effective and locally relevant AIDS vaccine is equally important. Without an
effective vaccine we are unlikely to win the war against AIDS.

Tuberculosis (TB) is another major health challenge in our country,
approximately 250 000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Although treatment is
currently available, patients have to take up to four anti TB drugs daily.
These drugs have toxic side effects and their poor solubility often results in
degradation prior to the drugs reaching the target site. Treatment failure is
high.

Nanotechnology presents a possible solution to this problem. Our scientists
have developed a unique nano-carrier system, comprising very small capsules
that go right to the target site and then release the drugs in a slow, steady
manner.

Potentially this unique nanotechnology drug delivery system would allow for
the administration of drugs once in seven days, instead of daily administration
and due to the site targeting would have fewer toxic side effects. Through the
application of this advanced technology a far higher treatment success rate
could be achieved.

Information and communication technology (ICT)

Madam Speaker, we are giving this House just a snapshot of the many exciting
things the Department is doing to make science and technology serve society. I
would like to refer briefly to some of the exciting work we are doing in the
area of ICT.

ICT is identified, alongside biotechnology, as one of the key platforms in
our research and development (R&D) strategy. I mentioned how biotechnology
and nanotechnology are providing solutions to our health challenges. ICT has an
equally important role to play.

Telemedicine is one example of how we can use information technology to
provide and support healthcare, especially in rural clinics without doctors or
specialist advice. Through the use of telemedicine, patients get quicker and
better diagnosis and have access to specialised care closer to their homes,
thereby avoiding time off work and travel costs.

The Department is supporting the Primary Healthcare Telemedicine Workstation
project in Grabouw, which is demonstrating that all these benefits can be
achieved through the use of information technology in a primary healthcare
clinic. This clinic is directly linked to the University of Stellenbosch and
allows for consultation and diagnosis in various specialities.

The next step in the implementation plan will be the installation of 10
telemedicine workstations in KwaZulu-Natal over the next two years.

Impressive advances are being made in ICT. The new Centre for High
Performance Computing was officially opened by Minister Mangena on Tuesday.
This centre will enormously advance our research capabilities in areas such as
advanced manufacturing, space science and research into infectious
diseases.

Sadly the other side of the story is that while these advances are being
made, many of our young learners have never touched a computer in their lives.
The Digital Doorway Project has proved to be an effective tool in bridging this
digital divide.

We are proud to announce that we have now installed 74 units countrywide and
a further 95 will be installed by September this year. It is giving thousands
of young people, who have no access to computers in their schools or homes the
opportunity to develop computer skills and to access valuable information.

There are about four million people in our country living with disabilities.
Access to information and services as well as the ability to communicate
effectively is a real challenge for them. The National Accessibility Portal
Project at the Meraka Institute is doing outstanding work to address the
marginalisation of people with disabilities through ICT.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this project is that many of the
researchers are people who have disabilities themselves. Amongst other things
they have developed a portable information and communication device for
visually impaired people that has inbuilt speech technologies and access to the
internet and audio books. They have also designed a highly customised picture
based tool that provides an alternative communication mechanism to people with
physical disabilities and to those who cannot talk. Twenty-seven specially
equipped centres will be established over the next two years.

Our four million people living with disabilities have the same worth as all
other people and deserve a life of dignity, and we are working hard to make
this happen.

Energy

There are many other things that are essential to enhancing the quality of
life, as well as the achievement of our growth targets. Without a reliable
supply of energy our economy will not grow and every household needs some form
of energy, even if it is only for cooking food and heating water.

About 3,5 million households do not yet have access to electricity and rely
primarily on paraffin and collected wood for light, cooking and heating.

The question is: 'how do we address this dual challenge of, on the one hand
needing more energy for industrial expansion and expanding household
electricity access and on the other hand the need for a cleaner and sustainable
supply of energy with reduced emissions?' The answer cannot lie in simply
building new coal fired generators. The supply of coal is finite and it is a
major source of atmospheric pollution. We are a country blessed with abundant
sunshine, yet we are not harnessing it as a source of energy.

The White Paper on Clean and Renewable Energy commits us to producing five
percent of the country's energy supply from renewable energy sources by
2013.

One way of meeting this target and simultaneously dealing with the
electricity infrastructure pressures, is through more energy efficient houses
that use the free energy from the sun. Our Department has entered into a
partnership with the Overstrand Municipality and the Cape Town Grail Centre
Trust, in a sustainable development project involving the construction of 611
low cost houses that will use better insulation building material and will have
solar water heaters installed. The project is also looking at ways of catching
storm water to irrigate the local school sports field and will pilot a novel
reed bed sewerage treatment plant.

Projects of this nature could provide useful lessons and technologies to
support the Department of Housing in its shift towards environmentally
sustainable housing projects.

In our search for energy solutions, our work on Hydrogen Fuel Cells (HFCs)
continues. A draft strategy document has been finalised and will soon be taken
to Cabinet approval.

Water

The equal worth of all citizens will remain an empty slogan for as long as
our people do not have access to clean water. Our goal is to halve the water
backlog by 2008. But given that so many people live in scattered and remote
rural areas, the delivery of piped water to every household is extremely
difficult to achieve. Many rural people, mostly women with multiple
responsibilities, have to walk long distances to fetch water from polluted
rivers.

With all our science and technology advances we have not yet succeeded in
providing a technological solution to purify the water that is collected from
polluted water sources. A simple household water treatment system known as
AmaDrum was developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) to address this challenge.

The product is a plastic drum that both disinfects and filters the water.
The sole manufacturing license was given to a small business in the Eastern
Cape. They were given a drum-moulding machine and a hundred drums to sell in
order to get the business started. However, since the project was initiated in
2001, only 750 drums have been manufactured of which less than a half have been
distributed.

Clearly we are not presenting this as a success story. It is a case of a
technology that seems to be good and would seem to have the potential to
significantly improve the lives of many people living in rural areas and
informal settlements. Yet six years after the initiation of the project it has
barely scratched the surface. What went wrong? Is it the technology or have we
not found the right formula to roll it out?

Very soon after this budget vote we will bring together some of our top
scientists in the CSIR, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), National
Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) and other institutions to analyse
situations like this and identify innovative ways of solving these
developmental challenges. I am confident that our scientists can come up with
winning solutions to the extreme hardships millions of people across the
continent face every day of their lives. A life without clean drinking water is
certainly not a life of dignity and equal worth.

African origins

Honourable members, as you know we are celebrating Africa Day today.
Minister Mangena has spoken in some detail about the Consolidated Plan of
Action and the various science and technology initiatives on the continent. One
of the programmes that we are asking you to support is our African origins
platform.

Africa has given the world many things but surely the greatest thing of all
has to be the birth of humankind itself. To quote Professor Philip Tobias,
"People often ask, what has Africa given the world? There is a simple answer.
Africa gave the world humanity and that is no small thing."

South Africa's fossil and human genetic heritage is remarkable. No other
country in the world can boast the oldest evidence of life on earth extending
back more than three billion years, the oldest multi-cellular animals, the most
primitive land living plants, the most distant ancestors of dinosaurs and
together with several other African countries, a most remarkable record of
human origins and of human achievements through the last eight million
years.

Palaeocene work done on the African continent in Ethiopia, Kenya, South
Africa and other countries has made a spectacular contribution to the world's
knowledge of the origins of humankind. Our species evolved on the African
continent. Human migration started about 60 000 years ago and finally resulted
in the occupation of virtually all corners of the planet. It all started in
Africa.

The rich fossil sites we have in the Cradle of Humankind tells the story of
our early ancestry and it is with pride that the Department is supporting the
world acclaimed work in this field done by South African scientists.

The knowledge of our common origins strengthens our belief in the equality
of all human beings. We are one human species of equal worth with huge common
challenges that we have to confront together or else we will surely perish
together.

Conclusion

This Budget Vote takes us well into the second half of this term of office.
It continues to be a real pleasure working with Minister Mosibudi Mangena. This
probably sounds a bit immodest, but I think we make a great team.

Dr Phil Mjwara has settled in well as Director-General and is helping us
take science and technology to ever greater heights in our country and he has a
hard working, competent and committed department to support him in that
endeavour.

The people working in my office have the most difficult project of all, they
have me to manage! This science and technology portfolio is diverse and keeps
us all extremely busy. I really value the outstanding support I get.

The Portfolio Committee, under the leadership of the honourable Eugene
Ngcobo, continues to be a pillar of strength. You can be rightfully proud of
the way you are doing your parliamentary work. Working together I have no doubt
that we can move rapidly forward to a society in which the equal worth of all
people is fully realised.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
25 May 2007