The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande SONA Debate Statement
Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula
Honourable President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa;
Deputy President, Mr David Mabuza;
Ministers and Deputy Ministers;
Honourable Members
Thank you President for a comprehensive SONA address, mapping a way forward to transform our country and build a better life for all.
As contained in the speech, government remains resolute in expanding the Post School Education and Training system, supported by a careful and systematic enrolment planning whose objective is to increase the participation rates of our youth, especially black youth and women, in PSET.
According to international university rankings, the South African university system is the strongest on the continent. But not only that, it is also the single largest university system that also remains public.
It is home to some of the highly respected universities in the continent and globally.
To ensure that we develop the entire public sector university system, we continue to intensify the implementation of the University Capacity Development Programme to improve student success, and the quality of teaching, learning and research and to support curriculum renewal in all our universities. This year we will be launching the Professor Sibusiso Bhengu Development programme to strengthen our historically disadvantaged universities.
My Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Science and Innovation are busy finalising the Skills Strategy and Innovation Strategies respectively to support the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) that is led by the President.
Indeed President, as you have clearly outlined in the SONA, through our skills development system, we will be offering about 100 000 opportunities, including but not limited to, learnerships and internships. The primary aim of these is to assist the transition of our young people from learning to working!
The President further announced that 10 000 TVET college graduates will be offered workplace experience so that they complete their qualifications, thus improving their prospects for employability or starting their own small businesses. This is the beginning of opportunities that we plan to roll out every year, so we address the need for what is sometimes called in service training for TVET college students.
Learners will be paid a learnership allowance regulated in terms of the National Minimum Wage Act.
We have also established entrepreneurship hubs at TVET Colleges to support students to move into self-employment after completion of their programmes.
Both our Universities and TVET Colleges curricula are being reviewed and strengthened to be relevant to skills required by the national economy.
We do this to align them with needs of local employers, communities and the economy, particularly focusing on digital and related skills.
We have also initiated different programmes aimed at encouraging young people to become artisans that are so desperately needed in the South African economy.
In 2018/2019 financial year, we trained and registered about 29 982 artisans and we will work more harder to increase this training which was slowed down in 2020/2021 by COVID-19.
This ANC led government has also increased apprenticeship learner grant from R165 000 to R206 290 paid to employers hosting apprentices for the duration of such apprenticeships.
Our established Centres of Specialisation based in more than 20 TVET colleges continue to focus on employer linked, quality training in thirteen (13) designated trades.
This year, we will also continue to improve our educational outcomes by supporting students to ensure that teaching and learning continues despite the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to support teaching and learning in the wake of Covid 19, last year we provided devices such as laptops, data for approximately over 90% of our students.
We also provided wifi to students who were allowed back on campus.
We have begun to turn the tide in reversing the backlogs in student accommodation both at our universities and TVET Colleges.
More details will be provided in this regard.
Let me also report that since the announcement by his Excellency the President in February 2020, I have appointed a Ministerial Task Team to oversee work to conduct feasibility studies on the new University of Science and Innovation and a new Crime Detection University, and a final report is scheduled to be submitted by the end of the year.
Honourable members
By UNESCO standards, South Africa continues to spend a large share of its national budget on education (both schooling and post-schooling).
Spending on education as a proportion of overall government expenditure (22.7 percent in 2019/20) and GDP (7.2 percent in 2019/20) far exceeding the benchmarks set by UNESCO, which recommends allocating 15–20 percent of public spending to education and 4–6 percent of GDP to education.
We will be able to fund all qualifying students on the DHET bursary scheme who have been admitted for funded programmes at public TVET colleges and universities in 2022.
Through NSFAS, the government has awarded approximately R171 billion in loans and bursaries to students since 1991, with 4,5 million students assisted. As at 31 December 2021 NSFAS disbursed R38,7 billion to about 800 000 university and TVET College students, representing an increase of 316% from 2015 to 2021!
It is a significant milestone for our government and reaffirms our commitment to expanding the frontiers of education to working-class and poor families.
We are also engaging both the public and private components of the financial sector to come up with a funding model to support students in the ‘Missing middle’ income bracket and Post Graduate students who cannot secure funding from the National Research Foundation.
President Ramaphosa has decisively led South Africa to play a leadership role to the global science and innovation response to COVID-19, in areas such as the development of vaccines, genomic surveillance, drugs and diagnostic tools.
Through cutting edge research done through the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) for example, we have made world-class contribution in fighting Covid 19.
Some of our other important achievements in the science and innovation space include:
- Identification of new Covid 19 variants thus leading the world in this regard.
- The completion and commissioning of the 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope. The telescope provides scientific capabilities that do not exist anywhere else in the world.
- Close to €700 million worth of contracts for the construction of the SKA will be awarded to companies and providers in the SKA member countries. South Africa stands to benefit greatly as a host country to the SKA.
- We have developed the South African Hydrogen Society Roadmap, which we are launching this coming Thursday, to identify the socio-economic benefits that hydrogen-related energy and enabling technologies could have on the South African economy. Government has allocated a budget of R29 933 872 million for the Platinum Valley project, which will cover the Johannesburg-to-Durban corridor, the OR Tambo International Airport to King Shaka Airport.
As the Department of Science and Innovation in conjunction with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology we successfully launched the three Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation at an investment of R27 million over three years.
This satellite constellation will provide cutting-edge, very high frequency (VHF) data exchange communication systems to the country's maritime industry, in support of Operation Phakisa, enabling us, amongst other things, to monitor ship movements on our coastline and better manage our fishing resources.
The country’s future is in good hands under your stewardship Your Excellency Mr President.
As the ANC government we call upon all citizens of our country to join hands with this government to Grow South Africa together.
I thank you
