Deputy Minister Gina Speech to the UJ BRICS+ Innovation Challenge
Executive Dean of CBE, Prof. Tankiso Moloi.
Prof. Siphamandla Zondi.
Prof. David Pooe.
Prof. Vicky Graham.
All Academics present today.
The Panellists and Judges.
Most importantly, the students who are pitching on innovation.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am incredibly excited to be part of such an important initiative at the premier University of Johannesburg. This BRICS Innovation Challenge, which you are hosting for the second time, is a serious and important work by an institution of higher learning. I congratulate you, UJ, and encourage you to never retreat from this initiative.
This Innovation Challenge, if anything, cements your place under the sun as a leading university when it comes to the 4th industrial revolution and innovation in general.
The theme of this 2nd BRICS Innovation Challenge is: “Strengthening Digital Skills and Entrepreneurship in BRICS+ through student Innovation”, and this theme captures the essence of what BRICS+ members are preoccupied with, in the age of AI models sweeping all aspects from manufacturing, agriculture, health diagnostics, education, business operational systems, etc.
The digital economy is in full steam, and nations that will win and advance in this golden age are those that can lead in innovation and commercialise faster. South Africa should not be left behind. As Alan Kay said, “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. We must propel the youth to lead from the front in this.
However, it worries me that our universities, including UJ, develop numerous innovation prototypes each year and record them in the Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Still, they do not get disseminated into the economy through commercialisation due to the higher costs associated with it.
As the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, we have established the Innovation Fund to finance these innovation initiatives, from idea to prototype, and work together on commercialisation. More specifically, last year we announced the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), designed to support aspiring innovators and tech entrepreneurs in our SA institutions of higher learning that have the potential to create jobs and spin-off companies. Our funding partner is the UN Development Programme.
I would like to see many innovators collaborating with our agencies, such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Technology Innovation Agency, who are leading the effort in this regard, supported by Departmental professional teams. I am pleased that the CSIR is present here today.
As the DSTI, we aim to establish a solid, resilient, and agile innovation ecosystem in South Africa, providing our younger people with comprehensive support from venture capital, angel investors, and institutional funding to explore new solutions and drive innovation for the country and the continent.
While there is a global race for AI and other new tech ecosystems, an emerging race is also underway within the continent. Countries like Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania should not be underestimated. A few months ago, I attended the eLearning for Africa conference in Tanzania. The emergent innovation ecosystems from these countries are impressive!
In many ways the UJ Innovation Challenge is not occurring in isolation. From a BRICS perspective, this initiative is part of a broader movement aligned with the BRICS Young Innovators Forum, a flagship platform under the BRICS Science, Technology and Innovation framework. Since its establishment in 2015, the Forum has become a strategic platform for youth engagement, bringing together young entrepreneurs, researchers, and start-ups from across the BRICS nations to showcase innovative solutions and foster lasting partnerships.
The Forum provides the vision, a shared commitment by BRICS to empower the next generation through innovation.
The UJ Innovation Challenge provides a practical platform in South Africa, where that vision can be realised through student-led entrepreneurship, digital skills, and collaborative projects. In other words, UJ is localising and institutionalising the ideals of the Forum, making them tangible for our young people.
I am pleased that in just a few weeks, the next BRICS Young Innovators Forum will be hosted by Brazil in September 2025. South Africa will proudly send a delegation of young scientists and innovators to represent our country on this global stage. They will not only showcase their own ideas and research but also build networks with their peers from Brazil, Russia, and other member states. There should be some way next time that your winners here form part of this competition.
Events such as today’s Innovation Challenge serve as a springboard for South Africa's representation on global platforms. They allow us to identify and empower the most promising talents from our universities and innovation ecosystems, ensuring that when our young people arrive at platforms such as the one for Brazil in September, they do so as confident leaders, ready to make their mark and demonstrate Africa’s potential as a centre of innovation.
The BRICS community offers rich lessons on how a country can strategically position innovation to advance its socioeconomic development. For example:
China, ranked among the top 12 countries on the Global Innovation Index, has harnessed youth-led platforms to develop world-class ecosystems in e-commerce, green technology, and artificial intelligence. India has cultivated one of the largest and most dynamic start-up ecosystems globally, delivering groundbreaking solutions in fintech, health tech, and education, many of which are driven by young innovators.
Similarly, Brazil and Russia have achieved notable progress in sectors such as Agri-tech, biotechnology, and clean energy, showing how innovation can foster socio-economic transformation across different contexts.
In addition, we can acquire knowledge from our new BRICS counterparts and BRICS+ collaborators, to mention a few:
Indonesia has generated unicorn start-ups in fintech and e-commerce that are revolutionising the lives of individuals throughout Southeast Asia. Egypt is currently the epicentre of African fintech, with Cairo emerging as one of the continent's foremost innovation hubs.
These successes demonstrate that the BRICS nations are not simply consumers of global innovation; we are producers, pioneers, and contributors to global progress. South Africa must continue to learn from these experiences while adapting them to our own context, particularly in renewable energy, digital skills development, and advanced manufacturing.
As the DSTI, this speaks to our mandate in terms of the National System of Innovation. Our new mantra is: Placing Science, Technology and Innovation at the centre of Government, Education, Industry and Society”. In this instance, we are implementing an education pillar of the STI with this innovation challenge. We will always support this initiative.
Conclusion.
I want to thank the panel of judges for their outstanding work. It’s not easy work going through the metrics that help you to make a judgment on the best project.
I take this opportunity to congratulate our students who are here to pitch today. All of you are winners. I want to encourage you to dream big and never be intimidated by big dreams. Go for them, don’t be timid. It is only the sky that is a limit!
Thank you
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