Programme director
Director-General of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara
Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Ms Hazel Jenkins
Northern Cape MEC for Education, Ms Zelda Cjiekilla
Acting Director-General of the Provincial Government, Ms Moira Marais-Martin
Learners, educators and parents
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
We are here today to mark the start of National Science Week 2009.
National Science Week is a celebration of the role that science, engineering and technology play in our lives. It’s an opportunity to excite our youth about science and technology. And it’s an opportunity to impress upon them their responsibility for future scientific and technological advances in this country.
Today’s launch differs from previous National Science Week launches for a number of reasons. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy
First, this is the tenth year that our National Science Week is being held.
Second, it’s the last launch under the five year plan that has guided the focus of the week since 2005. During this period, National Science Week activities centred on the youth, trying to fire young minds with enthusiasm for science, engineering and technology.
And, third, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has declared 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, which is why this launch is taking place in the Northern Cape, a province of international significance in astronomy.
Since 2004 the Department of Science and Technology has afforded provinces the opportunity to host the launch of the National Science Week on rotational basis, and so far it has been held in six provinces.
Usually stakeholders from all the nine provinces choose which province will host the next launch and usually there is protracted debate about this. But it was a totally different matter when the Northern Cape was chosen to host this launch.
Everyone involved appreciated that the launch of this year’s National Science Week would have to take place in this province. We should not forget that, with the exception of the Sol Plaatje Municipality the part of the province where we are today. South Africa’s Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act of 2007 declares the entire Northern Cape an astronomy advantage area.
Sutherland is home to some of the most sophisticated astronomy infrastructure in the world, including the largest single telescope in the southern hemisphere, the Southern African Largest Telescope (SALT). It’s one of the few places where you can view the southern skies without any form of obstruction.
We are convinced that this geographic advantage gives South Africa a good chance to win the bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. As some of you know, the SKA will make it easier for scientists to investigate the so-called dark ages, when the early universe was in a gaseous state, before stars and galaxies were formed.
The geographic advantage our country has in the Northern Cape provides our scientists with opportunities to collaborate with their counterparts in other parts of the world. Our experts in digital signal processing, for instance, have worked with the University of California and the United States National Radio Astronomy Laboratory in the development of the computing architecture for the MeerKAT radio telescope. A heroRAT can clear 100m2 of landmines in half an hour, a man would take two days
Learners and teachers, science makes the impossible possible.
How many of you would have thought of a rat as a saviour? And yet a group of Belgian and Tanzanian researchers discovered the usefulness of the African Giant Pouched Rat in detecting landmines and pulmonary tuberculosis. These rats are now called as HeroRATs.
According to a recent estimate, there are currently about 100 million landmines buried in 90 countries around the world.
It’s hoped that the HeroRATs will be able to save us from these destructive objects much faster than would otherwise have been the case. A trained rat, they say, can clear 100m2 in half an hour, which would take a person operating a manual de-miner two days to do.
Rats are faster than humans in other areas too. In just seven minutes, one rat can evaluate 40 samples of human sputum for tuberculosis, which is the equivalent of two days of microscopy work for a laboratory technician.
Five years of science focus on the youth
The five years in which we dedicated National Science Week to our youth were meant to encourage young people to aspire to be a part of future scientific and technological advancements that will help us address the socio-economic challenges we face. You don’t have to wait until you have passed grade 12 to identify your talent and unleash your potential and there are plenty of instruments to help you do this.
The Eskom Expo for young scientists, for instance, is a local science fair that offers learners from as early as grade 5 an opportunity to show others their own scientific investigations. In 2007, a grade 11 learner, Simone Abrahams, presented an exhibition on "The future of identification". Not only did her exhibition win her an award, she provisionally patented the intellectual and commercial rights for her world first invention biometric method for identifying people.
Your school text books equip you with basic knowledge to help you conceptualise, design and develop projects that expose your scientific and technological innovative mind.
Look at an individual like Dr Thebe Medupe. I find it encouraging that he was only 13 when he built his first telescope and made his own map of the moon. Since that time, his knowledge has grown in leap and bounds and today he is one of the most respected astrophysicists in South Africa.
We are ready to make an international call for five research chairs in areas aligned to the SKA.
Although we think we have a very good chance of being chosen to host the SK, the announcement of the winner will be made in 2011, we are very aware of the human resources this venture will require.
The same goes for other science, engineering and technology activities that South Africa needs if it is to achieve a competitive advantage.
As a result, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is continuing to expand its human resource development initiatives. For instance, the DST has established the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme, which supports postgraduate students in the area of astronomy, equipping them with the skills and knowledge they will need to work at sophisticated facilities like SALT and the SKA.
As we continue our efforts to build science and technology, we cannot be pessimistic about winning the bid to host the SKA. We have to make the best efforts to position South Africa to win.
It is my singular privilege to announce that, beginning this year, an international call will be made for five research chairs in the areas aligned to the SKA.
The research chairs initiative, fully known as the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARCHI), is a programme of the government of South Africa aimed at attracting top researchers and scientists from around the world and from the private sector into our higher education institutions.
To date, 72 research chairs have been awarded to South African higher education institutions and in a few days’ time, I will be making a special announcement of a new cohort of research chairs.
Indigenous technology and African knowledge systems can do much to orientate our people towards science, engineering, technology and mathematics.
Apart from the clear skies right throughout the year, South Africa is also endowed with other geographic advantages.
South Africa offers the world the second most biodiverse country. Indigenous technology and African knowledge systems can do much to orientate our people towards science, engineering, technology and mathematics.
The potential of indigenous knowledge systems to address Africa’s human and economic development within the national system of innovation is vast. In essence, Western-style mathematics and science should not be seen to conflict with the recognition of spiritual, cultural, philosophical and religious values.
I must emphasise that open dialogue needs to be maintained to facilitate mutual understanding between these value systems.
When we talk about indigenous knowledge systems we are not talking about just the traditional arts and crafts that sell so well to tourists. There are textile technologies, jewellery and brass work manufacturing technologies, atmospheric management techniques and architectural, medicinal and pharmacological knowledge and technologies to be explored. Their potential needs to be exploited in the context of democratic participation for communities, both national and globally.
We will commission an independent evaluation of the first ten National Science Weeks. Since the first National Science Week was held in 2000, we have had plenty of time to gather experience and ideas about how to structure our science, engineering and technology awareness promotion campaigns better.
We cannot claim to have learnt everything we need to, but an independent evaluation of the first 10 National Science Weeks, which we intend to commission in the next financial year, will generate useful lessons.
In the meanwhile, the Department of Science and Technology has already begun working towards the development of an integrated science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation awareness raising model for South Africa. Part of this work will lead to a broadened National Science Week, targeting a wider cross section of our population.
In the past few years South Africa has experienced growth awareness initiatives by various stakeholders in the local science system. The integrated plan we envisage is intended, among other things, to promote better co-ordination and eliminate challenges brought about by the currently fragmented science, engineering and technology awareness raising system.
Over the next week, there will be organised activities in all nine provinces. Over 70 organisations have received grants from the DST to organise and conduct National Science Week activities and some organisations have also volunteered their services.
The majority of these organisations have been involved in National Science Week since its inception and their efforts have contributed to the recognition our work has received from other countries on the continent. South Africa is now a regular participant in the annual Lesotho Science and Technology Week. We have recently been invited to participate in Uganda’s Science Week in September and our officials are also playing a central role in the planning of the proposed Southern African Development Community (SADC) Science, Engineering and Technology Week.
In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my colleague, the Premier of the Northern Cape and the team she leads in this province. She and her team have provided support in various forms for the preparations for this launch and I believe that the provincial government assigned some of its senior managers to sit on committees organising this event.
I now declare National Science Week 2009 officially launched. I urge all South Africans to find a way to participate in the event, and encourage those of you whose tight schedules will not permit you to visit sites hosting National Science Week activities to celebrate the event in some way wherever you are.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
30 July 2009
