Programme Director, Dr. Kolisa Siqoko;
Chairperson of the Council of Walter Sisulu University, Prof. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi;
Vice-Chancellor of iYunivesithi Walter Sisulu, Professor Thandi Mgwebi;
Deputy Vice-Chancellor-Learning and Teaching, Prof Margaret Lenington;
Deputy Director-General for Socio-Economic Innovation Partnerships, Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Mmboneni Muofhe;
Board Members and CEOs of DSTI Entities;
Representatives of Research and Academic institutions;
Senior Government Officials;
Representatives of Industry and Civil society;
Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Students and Researchers;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen:
I am deeply honoured to join you for this high-level ministerial visit to the Institute for Advanced Tooling at iYunivesithi Walter Sisulu.
This is my third visit to the Eastern Cape in two months. In September, I visited the Coega Special Economic Zone. On 16 October, I visited the East London Industrial Development Zone and its Science and Technology Park.
Together with recent engagements at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre and Sasol in Gauteng, these visits form part of our Ministry’s long-term programme to advance innovation-led industrialisation and strengthen the coordination of science, technology, and innovation at local and regional levels.
Our programme rests on a simple conviction: meaningful innovation requires collaboration with industry, and sustainable industrialisation requires innovation. For the purpose of today’s occasion, I wish to reflect on four connected priorities.
The strategic context for innovation in South Africa
First, the 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation and the Decadal Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation (2022–2032) provide the strategic framework for our Department and its entities.
Together, they call for a more inclusive, coherent, and responsive National System of Innovation—one that mobilises knowledge and technology to address South Africa’s social, economic, and environmental priorities.
From our perspective, innovation is not simply about producing ideas. It must improve how we manufacture, farm, mine, manage natural resources, deliver public services, and respond to community needs.
It must strengthen established industries and open pathways into new ones. Above all, it must deliver affordable, locally relevant solutions that can be taken to scale, while enabling the development of products and services for export.
As you know, our country has excellent universities, science councils, researchers, and technology organisations. Yet knowledge does not automatically become a marketable product, a better production process, a growing enterprise, or a job.
My visit gives practical expression to our country’s Decadal Plan by advancing two key objectives: accelerating innovation-led industrialisation and rebuilding regional value chains.
The advanced manufacturing, reverse engineering and metrology capabilities at this rural-based comprehensive university demonstrate how public investment in science, technology and innovation infrastructure can modernise manufacturing, promote localisation and strengthen indigenous production capabilities.
It also advances our commitment to placing science, technology, and innovation at the centre of government, education, industry, and society.
Moving from research to application requires engineering expertise, specialised equipment, testing, standards, prototyping, business support, finance, and access to markets.
Closing this gap is one of South Africa’s greatest challenges—and one of our Department’s most important tasks.
Technology Stations: bridging research and industry
Second, Technology Stations bridge research and industry. Based mainly at universities of technology and comprehensive universities, they connect public knowledge infrastructure with the changing needs of firms and communities.
They make specialised equipment, technical expertise, and product-development support accessible to enterprises, particularly small and medium-sized businesses in township and rural economies.
These partnerships help firms improve competitiveness, grow revenue, enter new markets, and create jobs. Universities benefit through stronger curricula, relevant research, and practical student training.
Technology Stations are national innovation assets: wherever they are located, they must serve industrial needs across South Africa. Continued public investment must be justified by demonstrable improvements in industrial performance and growth.
The Institute for Advanced Tooling illustrates this approach. Government investment in shared facilities and expert teams reduces the cost and risk of innovation. I am informed that, over recent years, the Institute has supported 568 beneficiaries and enterprises, developed 54 IP and knowledge-based products, and leveraged more than R5.1 million in additional income.
Its capabilities include advanced manufacturing, 5-axis CNC machining, CAD/CAM, reverse engineering, machine design, metrology, and skills transfer. These services help local firms compete globally and translate knowledge into practical products and production solutions.
Successes include precision moulds for Fenn Kayaks’ export-grade surfski components, replacement of pneumatic manifold parts for automotive spray systems, cooling cowls for light aircraft, and prototypes of low-cost adjustable prosthetic limbs.
Together, these examples show how technical expertise and purposeful partnerships can advance localisation, industrial competitiveness, and inclusive economic growth.
A nationally distributed technology infrastructure
Third, investment in the Technology Stations Programme is intended to build a nationally distributed technology infrastructure that serves enterprises in every province. Geographic reach is essential.
Innovation and industrial capability cannot be confined to our largest metropolitan centres. Public support must reach enterprises and communities throughout the country.
A distributed network brings assistance closer to where firms operate. It connects regional strengths—in manufacturing, agro-processing, chemicals, clothing and textiles, electronics, and renewable energy—with national expertise and infrastructure. It also allows locally identified challenges to inform national policy and investment.
Through direct engagement with enterprises, Technology Stations can identify shared technological constraints, skills gaps, and infrastructure needs. They can convene partners around regional value chains, connect firms with complementary expertise, and align research with economic opportunities.
This role is especially important in the Eastern Cape, which combines established automotive and manufacturing capabilities, significant university knowledge assets, and a growing entrepreneurial base. Yet many communities still lack access to economic opportunities.
Stronger coordination can connect these assets, support local suppliers, and retain more value within the province. It can also attract new enterprises, subsectors, and sectors alongside established industrial nodes, creating a “neighbourhood effect” that adds value to the local economy.
More broadly, this approach strengthens the coordination of science, technology, and innovation at subnational level. Provinces, municipalities, universities, development agencies, and business organisations each contribute essential capabilities.
Too often, these capabilities remain fragmented. We must connect them around shared regional priorities. I therefore repeat the suggestion I made during my visit to the East London Industrial Development Zone and its Science and Technology Park: consider establishing a Science, Technology, and Innovation Forum for the Buffalo City region.
Such a forum could strengthen regional innovation capacity, including through the development of science, technology and innovation parks linked to Special Economic Zones in the Eastern Cape. It could coordinate existing institutions so that research, skills, infrastructure, and industrial demand reinforce one another.
Most importantly, it could provide a practical mechanism for identifying problems that require technological solutions and matching them with the right expertise.
Turning knowledge into products and services
Fourth and finally, the true test of our innovation system is whether it converts knowledge into value. That value is not only economic or monetary. But today, our focus is on harnessing technological innovation to expand, grow and diversify the economy.
Technology Stations support the critical stages of innovation: from concept to design, from design to prototype, from prototype to testing, and from testing to production readiness.
For a small enterprise, a single unresolved technical problem can prevent a product from reaching the market. A component may fail to meet tolerances, or a design may be too expensive to manufacture. By solving these problems, Technology Stations turn scientific and engineering knowledge into practical economic capability.
This is particularly important for localisation and the development of an indigenous production base. South Africa should not remain dependent on imported equipment, components, and intellectual property where we can develop local alternatives. Reverse and forward engineering, industrial tooling, product redesign, materials expertise, and advanced manufacturing can help domestic firms enter supply chains previously closed to them.
Localisation does not mean copying yesterday’s technologies. It means improving products, adapting them to African conditions, and developing new solutions. By bringing researchers, engineers, designers, and entrepreneurs together, Technology Stations can help develop competitive products for domestic, continental, and international markets.
South Africa’s unemployment crisis and skills development demand urgent, practical solutions. Technology alone is not the answer. But overcoming unemployment requires continuous technological innovation woven into the fabric of our industries.
Technology Stations can contribute in three important ways:
- Helping existing firms improve productivity, quality, and resource efficiency, and enter new markets—strengthening their ability to retain and create jobs.
- Helping entrepreneurs develop market-ready products and services, enabling new businesses to emerge.
- Building technical and entrepreneurial skills that improve the employability of graduates and workers.
Equally important are the issues of inclusion and transformation. Technology support must reach young people, women, black-owned enterprises, township and rural businesses, and co-operatives with growth potential. Access to facilities must be matched by mentoring, market connections, and appropriate finance. Innovation support cannot end at the laboratory door.
We must also understand longer-term outcomes: which firms grow, which products reach the market, which imports are displaced, which exports are enabled, and which jobs are sustained or created. Better evidence will help us direct public resources towards interventions with the greatest impact.
In conclusion, our vision is a South Africa in which every province participates meaningfully in the innovation economy; small enterprises can access world-class expertise; locally developed products move into production; manufacturing becomes more competitive and sustainable; and young people see science, engineering and entrepreneurship as pathways to sustainable work.
Realising this vision requires persistence, coordinated government action, capable institutions, purposeful partnerships, and disciplined investment. Above all, we must judge innovation not only by the novelty of an idea, but by how it improves people’s lives and contributes to national development.
Let us work together to build an innovation system that is nationally connected, locally rooted and focused on results—one that turns knowledge into products and services, opens new industries, sustains and creates jobs, and helps overcome South Africa’s deep structural unemployment.
Thank you.
