Minister Pandor's speech at the opening of the Scifest Africa 2016, Guy Butler Theatre, 1820 National Monument, Grahamstown
Distinguished guests,
Excellencies representing the diplomatic corps,
Members of parliament and legislators,
Educators, learners, parents, good evening to you all.
I wish to thank ScifestAfrica for inviting me to open Scifest2016. My thanks to to all the partners that provided support and advice to Scifest.
This is the 20th anniversary of ScifestAfrica. The fact of 20 years of this event confirms that it is a relevant and necessary part of the national system of innovation.
Scifesthas grown tremendously since the first festival in 1997. Then it had 15 exhibitions and 180 interactive events, 100 contributors and 15,000 visitors.
This year Scifest has 50 exhibitions and 650 interactive events, 350 contributors and 58,000 visitors.
I am especially pleased to see so many learners and educators present here today. The main purpose of Scifestis to introduce you to the exciting world of science and technology and to encourage you to choose to be part of this community of science and innovation. I am sure you will agree that ScifestAfrica has succeeded in making science and its role in the world visible and accessible to all of us.
The DST supports several activities that promote science engagement. They include SciFest, national science week, science centres, and the programmes run by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), which is part of our National Research Foundation.
Let me give you some examples.
Science engagement activities in his youth inspired the Professor Tshilidzi Marwala to pursue studies in science and technology and today he is a Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Johannesburg.
He won the National Science Olympiad back in 1989. He was latera delegate to the Youth Science Week and the London International Youth Science Forum and those two events really kindled his interest in science. Between 1997 and 2000, Marwala did a PhD in Computational Intelligence, after which he became a postdoctoral research associate at the University of London’s Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, working on intelligence software. In 2003 Marwala became the first African Engineer to be awarded the NRF President’s Award (P-rating), which is presented to researchers younger than 35 years of age, and who are considered likely to become future international leaders in their field. In 2007 he was awarded a SARCHi research chair and soon after he was appointed DVC at the University of Johannesburg.
Science engagement activities also encouraged Kevin Govender, and he has become the first South African to be awarded the prestigious Edinburgh Medal as a result of his work in the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), an initiative funded by the NRF and the International Astronomical Union.
The Edinburgh Medal is a prestigious award given each year to men and women of science and technology whose professional achievements are judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity.
Kevin Govender and President of the IAU, Silvia Torres Peimbert, will receive the Edinburgh Medal at the Chambers of the City of Edinburgh Council on Wednesday, 30 March, 2016.
In its 28 years, this is only the second time that TheEdinburgh Medal has been jointly awarded to an individual and an organisation - in 2013 Professor Peter Higgs and CERN received the medal. Previous individual recipients of The Edinburgh Medal include Prof Jane Goodall (1991), Sir David Attenborough (1998) and Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1999). The list of previous recipients also include four Nobel laureates: Prof Abdus Salam (1989), Prof Wangari Maathai (1993), Sir John Edward Sulston (2001) and Prof Peter Higgs (2013).
Science engagement activities also encouraged Professor Zodwa Dlamini to choose a career in science. She grew up in the North Coast district of Mahlabatini, Ulundi, in KwaZulu-Natal and today she has scaled the rungs of academia to reach the post of Deputy Vice Chancellor at the Mangosuthu University of Technology.
As an unrated researcher in 2010, she was part of the NRF’s Competitive Support for Unrated Researcher Programme for three years. She is the first woman Deputy Vice-Chancellor to lead research at the Mangosuthu University of Technology.
Science engagement activities also inspired three outstanding scientists who recently received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Award at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa on 31 January 2016.
The three winners were Professor Linus Opara, who holds the SARChI Chair in Postharvest Technology at Stellenbosch University; Professor Salim Abdool Karim, who leads the Centre of Excellence in HIV Prevention at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; and Prof Tebello Nyokong, who holds the SARChI Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and Nanotechnology at Rhodes University. The awards are presented to African scientists who have made remarkable achievements in their fields, demonstrated by the number of articles published and research graduate students their supervise; the applicability of their work to the challenges in Africa; and the patentability of their research.
These examples affirm that if we wish to continue to do well in science and innovation we must create a much larger science, engineering and technology human-capital pipeline that starts at the schooling level. Science, engineering and technology awareness campaigns are the best way to create excitement among pupils.
We hope your schools will also initiate science activities that will help you to do well in maths and science.
You, the learners present here, have time to work hard and to succeed in science technology and engineering. You live in a time in which there are immense possibilities for all young people. I hope you will use the festival to learn about science careers and to think about contributing to building a great South Africa.
In closing, I would like to thank Mr Kevin Govender, Chairperson, Scifest Africa Advisory Committee, and Ms Anja Fourie, Director, Scifest Africa for their excellent work in making this festival the best in Africa.
