Minister of Science and Innovation Budget Speech, responses by FF+ & DA

Watch: Mini-Plenary (Debate on Vote 35)

 

ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION, DR BLADE NZIMANDE MP ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2023 DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION BUDGET VOTE - 23 May 2023

Honourable Chairperson;

Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Honourable Buti Manamela;

Members of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology, led by Honourable Chairperson, Ms Nompendulo Mkhatshwa;

Director-General of the Department, Dr Phil Mjwara;

The entire National System of Innovation;

Honourable Members

This is the 5th installation of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) budget vote presentation in the 6th Administration. 

The theme for our Budget Vote today is "Using science, technology and innovation to grow our country and together resolve its challenges".

In the current financial year, we will continue to implement the STI Decadal Plan through the STI budget coordination mechanism to build a capable State and contribute to South Africa’s economic recovery. 

We will upscale the implementation of the Innovation Fund, in order to support the early development and expansion stages of technology-based South African firms. 

We also remain resolute to increase gross domestic investment in research and development as a percentage of gross domestic product, with the aim of achieving the National Development Plan's target of 1,5%. 

Through the Hydrogen Society Roadmap, we have unlocked the potential of new sources of clean energy to facilitate a just transition from a carbon-intensive to a carbon-neutral economy. 

We have also registered the Hydrogen Valley Programme with Infrastructure South Africa under Strategic Integrated Projects in December 2022. 

Through the CoalCO2-X project, we have supported a carbon capture and utilisation technology, which captures carbon dioxide from flue gas and then converts it into a fertiliser salt using ammonia.

This technology was successfully demonstrated at a cement plant in Limpopo this year January 2023. 

To date, we have invested R50 million in this project, which has allowed local small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) to put in place partnerships to demonstrate the potential of flue gas conversion technology at the plant. 

We will be finalising our Masterplan in the establishment of a National Solar Research facility that will support the development, commercialisation and deployment of solar-based technologies for application in both the solar power and fuel sectors in order to facilitate the movement of technologies from laboratory to market.

We are also reviewing our Water RDI Roadmap with a view of improving our investments for greater impact in the water sector.

STI roadmap towards a circular economy,

One of our major preoccupations is to develop an STI roadmap towards a circular economy, given the pressure of finite natural resources and sensitivity to global warming risks. 

In support of our  Indigenous Knowledge systems,  we are leading the research, development and innovation pillar of the Cannabis Industrialisation Master Plan. 

A total of twenty (20) SMMEs received support for product development through the CSIR and its partners.

We are also piloting the recognition of prior learning (RPL) assessments through the University of KwaZulu-Natal, North-West University and the University of Venda in order to redress and levelling the imbalances of the past where indigenous knowledge was not regulated nor recognised by our laws. 

We are supporting several national demonstration and upscaling incubation facilities hosted by the CSIR Through the Strategic Industrial Bioinnovation Partnership Programme.

Our Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) partnership with the Minerals Councils South Africa continues to receive R65 million from our Department and R32,5 million from the Minerals Council South Africa per annum.

I am delighted to report that through the Agriculture Bioeconomy Innovation Partnership Programme (ABIPP), we have supported agroprocessing in rural communities and farmer development programmes benefited a total of 845 black emerging farmers in 2021/22. 

We are also supporting the honeybush project and the  marula value chain project in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation and Technology Innovation Agency.

We have also carried out innovative strategies to promote agroprocessing, such  as nixtamalization targeting women, youth and people with living with disabilities in Limpopo, the Free State, North-West and Mpumalanga for them to start their own business.

We have also established a seed processing facility and are also piloting a seed development project in the Ncera area in the Eastern Cape to promote the local production and consumption of pulses and ensure food and nutrition security. 

Together with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), we supported the launch of a National Biosecurity Hub to deal with national phytosanitary measures and assist South Africa to meet the requirements of international trade. 

We also funded the development of a digital platform at Innovation Africa to support the piloting of tools and technologies, such as early warning systems for biosecurity threats, to assist government and producers. 

Honourable members

Our South African National Space Agency (SANSA) has been developing space capability in operational space weather over the past 10 years. 

Through SANSA, we have been appointed to host one of the designated International Civil Aviation Organization regional centres for the provision of space weather information to the entire aviation sector flying in African airspace.

As a Department we provided financial support to SANSA for the construction of a 24/7 operational space weather centre in Hermanus. 

To date, SANSA has trained eight young, black space weather forecasters who will provide services to various clients, including the aviation sector.

Funded jointly by the  Technology Innovation Agency and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), funding the development of machine-to-machine learning for the cube satellite missions in the current financial year.

As a country, we have signed an agreement with the USA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to build a deep-space vehicle tracking and communications ground station in the semi-desert Karoo region of Matjiesfontein, in the Western Cape. 

This new ground station will be helping to track history-making NASA missions to the moon and beyond by 2025. 

The partnership will also see continued skills development in space science and technology, which the DSI has been investing in for years. 

Honourable members

As a Department, we have also contributed to the fight against Covid-19 by continuing with research, development and innovation in African natural medicines through the National Policy Data Observatory (NPDO).

Indigenous Knowledge-Based Bioinnovation Programme

We have made significant progress in institutionalising the Indigenous Knowledge-Based Bioinnovation Programme, including high-level funding to improve research facilities at the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and Pretoria. 

As part of implementing the BioProducts Advancement Network South Africa, we are piloting an indigenous product programme fund in collaboration with the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). 

We re therefore funding seven projects to the value of R36 million for high-end product development, agri-businesses and manufacturing of natural products. 

We have constructed and equipped the new world-class African natural medicines laboratory at the University of the Free State to do research into HIV/Aids, TB, long Covid and diabetes.  We are planning a second laboratory for the University of KwaZulu-Natal. 

Honourable Members

As a Department, we are highly involved in the area of Health Innovation, particularly in three critical areas of Medical Device and Diagnostic Innovation, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Technology Innovation and Supporting health needs through vaccine research, development and manufacturing strategy.

In this regard, we will continue to support the consortium led by the World Health Organization to develop and build the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub locally. 

The aim of the hub is to diversify vaccine manufacturing and specifically accelerate vaccine production in Africa, through a consortium made up of the Medicines Patent Pool, Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, the DSI, the SAMRC, a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The strategy is premised on the need to ensure a viable local vaccine manufacturing industry and to address concerns about security of supply on the continent by building sustainable human vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa. 

We are also in the process of finalising a vaccine development, innovation and manufacturing strategy for South Africa. 

As a Department, we are committed to implement our commitment to support the procurement of locally developed technologies through the Technology Acquisition and Deployment Fund (TADF). 

We are prioritising initiatives for inclusive development and intellectual property exploitation in ICT, renewable energy and the circular economy. 

Equally, we have developed mechanisms to support entrepreneurs by facilitating the commercialisation of grassroots innovation and access to publicly available intellectual property.

In this current financial year, the Mobile Applications Laboratory or mLab, will be strengthening the Imbali precinct's 4IR innovation system together with Innobiz (Durban University of Technology's Midlands Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation). 

The Imbali Education and Innovation Precinct pilot will enable the DSI and other players to align skills development and innovation strategies, which will facilitate innovation-led, skills based, local economic growth and development.

The MLab will also be establishing a community-centred coding laboratory and start an ecosystem development programme focused on school learners and selected community members. 

In partnership with local actors, our Living Labs Programme has established 11 community-embedded labs in rural villages and townships. 

The outcomes have included supporting 200 aspiring innovators through design thinking training, the development of 28 prototypes and 17 market-ready products, and the registration of 14 businesses.

To date our  Grassroots Innovation Programme (GIP) has enlisted over 140 young entrepreneurs and an additional 60 enrolled through collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Innovation Competition, the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists, the Insurance SETA and the Department of Tourism.  Over R10million has been leveraged to support innovators. 

The GIP also launched 15 tourism technology products addressing various aspects of the tourism value-chain, illustrating how youth unemployment could be addressed through the commercialisation of products and entrepreneurship.

We are also implementing the Innovation Champions for LED Programme in Vhembe and OR Tambo District Municipalities in partnership with the University of Venda, Walter Sisulu University and other LED actors. 

To date, eleven (11) innovation champions have been deployed to municipalities and universities in the two districts to support LED managers to foster the innovation agenda. 

Our intention is to roll out this programme to all 44 districts in the country in support of the District Development Model (DDM) to ensure that innovation is entrenched at grassroots level.

Our Department, through the strategic support from the National Treasury, is implementing a  third phase of the Sector Innovation Fund Programme. We have  invested approximately R36 million in the 2023/24 in order to be matched by industry over four years.

Technology Stations

Through our seventeen (17) technology stations at thirteen (13) of our higher education institutions, we have provided technological support, including for small-batch production and the development of prototypes, to thousands of SMMEs and potential entrepreneurs. 

Honourable members

I am delighted to report that we now have begun with the construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in South Africa. Our construction together with that of Australia forms the biggest-ever radio telescope array, at a cost of $2,2 billion. 

It is estimated that these two sites will together create 710 petabytes of science data when fully operational in 2029. It is therefore expected that astronomers can get 50 years or more of transformational science through the SKA.

In South Africa, 133 dish antennas will be added to the existing 64-dish MeerKAT precursor telescope, totalling nearly 200 dishes, to form the SKA's mid-frequency telescope array.

A total of 1 400 students have been supported through the SKA bursary programme to date. 

Let me also indicate that South African companies and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory will benefit immensely from the rolling out of this infrastructure, which includes the building of the SKA Exploratorium in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape. 

The initiative is expected to boost science awareness and outreach, stimulate science tourism in the region and create employment. 

The MeerKAT telescope, built by South Africans, does world-class scientific work and will continue to do so until it is fully integrated into the SKA in the next five to seven years. 

To date, more than 180 scientific articles based on MeerKAT observations have been published in leading scientific journals.

Among the groundbreaking results is the discovery of "Nkalakatha", a powerful radio laser, the most distant of its kind, with the faint radio waves now detected in the Karoo emitted in colliding galaxies before the Earth was even formed. 

Honourable Chairperson

South Africa assumed the Chair of BRICS on 1 January 2023 under the theme "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism". 

Under this theme, the DSI will be hosting the BRICS Ministerial Meeting and BRICS Young Scientist Forum on STI from 31 July to 4 August 2023. 

Led by NACI, we will also host the first BRICS STI Policy and Foresight Symposium. 

The DSI will also be hosting the BRICS events on photonics, research infrastructure and mega-science projects, marine and polar sciences, water research and innovation, technology foresight and STI policy, astronomy, biotechnology, human health and neuroscience.

Honourable Members

The DSI's total budget for 2023/24 is R10,8 billion, up from R9,1 billion in 2022/23. Most of the Department's budget goes to transfers to entities.

As I conclude, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Honourable President, Deputy President, Cabinet Colleagues and members of the Portfolio Committee for their robust engagement.

Gratitude also goes to my wife, my staff in the Ministry and to the Director General, Dr Phil Mjwara and the entire Executive Management Committee and staff of the Department, Boards, Executives and staff at all our entities and institutions, and everybody who contributed towards the achievement of our policy mandate.

Thank you

 

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SPEECH BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND INNOVATION, MR BUTI MANAMELA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION BUDGET VOTE PRESENTATION, 23 MAY, 2023

[Honourable House Chairperson; our Minister Dr Blade Nzimande; Chairperson of our portfolio committee, Ms Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, together with members of the Committee; our DG, Dr Phil Mjwara; together with all the officials and entities of the DSI]

I join the Minister in presenting this Budget Vote Speech under the theme ‘Using Science, Technology, and Innovation To Grow Our Country and Together Resolve Its challenges’.

This is the last budget of the term of the sixth administration, and the penultimate before we observe the 30th Anniversary of our liberation as a country.

We are also presenting this budget two days before the commemoration of Africa Day, and in doing so, we locate our Department and its agencies within the broader context of moving Africa’s Agenda 2063 forward within the framework of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

There is no denying that although much has been done over the last 29 years, the challenges of poverty, unemployment, gender-based violence and energy supply persistent.

Science, Technology, and Innovation remain critical in dealing with these major challenges.

As the pollical leadership, we have to answer the question: How has the democratic state used science, technology, and innovation to improve the people’s quality of life, especially our youth?

Informed by the National Development Plan and our White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation and our Science, Technology, and Innovation Decadal Plan, over the period under review, we have made several interventions that are aimed at improving our people’s lives.

These include:

• Championing the development of local diagnostics products in response to COVID-19, ultimately approved by SAPHRA, and made by CapeBio (which spun out of CSIR) and Medical DiagnosTech;
• Our investment in BioEconomy focused on indigenous innovations, including supporting a Women Co-operative, Setsong Tea Crafters, in Sekhukhune- which now has an off-take agreement with retail giant Food Lovers Market;
• Last year we were able to launch 4 nanosatellites dedicated to our Oceans and Coastal Information Management Systems (OCIMS), supporting our economic sovereignty at sea;
• We are now host of the Regional Centre for Space Weather, through SANSA. This puts us at the centre of global aviation safety as we provide important data relevant not only for aviation but protection of communication and electricity distribution infrastructure; 
• 
  We are also proud that last year we renewed our lunar exploration partnership with NASA, the US space Agency;
• 
  In 2021, we were given the responsibility to support the building of vaccine Manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries through the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, and in a short space of time we developed a vaccine candidate that is undergoing various pre-clinicals.
• Last night in Geneva, on the side-lines of the World Health Assembly, this was celebrated by the international community, signalling our readiness to manufacture life-saving vaccines if the next pandemic hits.
• As part of modernising manufacturing through Advance Manufacturing Initiative, we were able to manufacture locally the life-saving ventilators during Covid-19, relying on our technology stations and to utilise our project management capabilities of the SKA programme.

By all accounts these are remarkable achievements for a democracy that is less than 30 years old and located in a continent condemned for doom.

Protecting the dignity of indigenous knowledge systems

One of the objectives of the colonial project was to entrench the falsity that, when the  European encountered Africans, we as Africans had no concept of science or capacity to engage in higher forms of thought such as philosophy, mathematics or logic.

To counter what is now known as the coloniality of knowledge, over the years, our department put in place policy and institutional mechanisms that are deliberately aimed at protecting and promoting our indigenous knowledge systems.

One of the ways we continue doing this is the roll-out of our Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Degree at the universities of Venda and the North West.

To date, approximately 300 hundred students have graduated in this field. Plans are afoot to increase the number of universities offering this qualification.

We will continue to ensure that indigenous technologies in mining and astronomy are promoted within our communities, including a Smart Village pilot in Nyandeni, Eastern Cape, through a project that earned itself recognition from UNESCO earlier this year.

Human capital development for young people

Part of ensuring we have the requisite number of scientists, researchers and innovators is by deliberately producing a critical mass of young black and women scientists and researchers. To this end, in 2021/22, a total of 5 643 honours and master's students, and 2 527 PhD students were supported.

We remain steadfast to meet our target of awarding 12 000 PhD bursaries in the 2019-2024 MTEF, with 7 253 PhD students already achieved.

In a budget debate that is likely to shun good news, it may be important to note that by end of June 2022, we had had supported 17 211 Master’s and Honours students, seven thousand short of the 24 000 target that we committed at the beginning of this Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

This is not all.

In the 2021 academic year we commenced with the implementation of the DSI-NRF full-cost-of-study support for three categories of postgraduate students, benefitting more than two-thirds of first-time funded postgraduate students.

After the floods that swept parts of the Western Cape, KZN and Eastern Cape, and the role that space science played in geo-mapping and helping disaster management interventions with efficient response capacity, we cannot over-emphasise the role that agencies such as the South African National Space Agency play in impacting the lives of our people.

Through SANSA, we have supported 285 postgraduate students at Honours, Masters and PhD level, during the period 2018 to date, with a total of 58 in 2023 alone, so that we can beef up their capacity and that of the country in the work that the do.

We also commend SANSA for hosting interns the technical as well as support fields and call on science graduates to look out for these opportunities.

Youth entrepreneurship as a catalyst for science, technology, and innovation

We have positioned our department as an anchor to support the use of science, technology, and innovation for youth entrepreneurship. Our lead in research, development, and innovation of the Cannabis Industrialisation Master Plan is one of the initiatives that seeks to achieve this.

We have led, together with the CSIR in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development and the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the support of twenty SMMEs for product development. 

In 2023/24 the focus will be on high-end medicinal products and through the youth skills development programme CoachLab, we enabled 59 indigenous knowledge holders from 40 SMMEs to graduate.

Enhancing public understanding of science, technology, and innovation

With the advent of COVID-19, just as is the case with any pandemic, the proliferation of disinformation through fake news became entangled with scientific knowledge, and in some parts of the world, conspiracy theories triumphed-taking advantage of people’s lack of grasp in scientific knowledge.

This was perpetuated by the mainstream media’s lack of appreciation of the importance to understand science, and present it in such a way that everyone can appreciate its value and therefore, SAVE LIVES.

We are working hard to reverse this.

One of the facilities that is central to our work of promoting public understanding of science, technology and innovation is the Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu Science Centre in Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape, which has revolutionised the way science centres engage with the public.

Scientists from the CSIR are working with 25 learners from St James and Cofimvaba Secondary Schools to monitor the performance of technologies at the science centre. The learners from these two schools are collecting and uploading data on the performance of technologies at the science centre, bridging the gap between scientists and citizens.

As part of improving our science engagement efforts we will be strengthening the capacity of the NRF's South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA). This is to enable its mandate of coordinating public engagement.

We are also pleased to announce that the first DSI-initiated Postgraduate Diploma in Science Communication will be offered at the University of Limpopo. 

This will help develop basic science communication skills in scientists and science communication intermediaries such as journalists, educators and science interpreters.

Strengthening collaboration in Africa

As part of our work in the continent, we have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation, covering areas such as Space Science and the Hydrogen Economy.

Further to this, through our bilateral and research cooperation between the CSIR and the Ugandan Industrial Research Institute, there will be an up-scaling of the essential oils project.

This Project has resulted in two demonstrator farms and 40 people in Uganda receiving training on the essentials oil value chain.

Together with Ghana and Ethiopia, we participated in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa study on advancing entrepreneurial universities in Africa through our participation in the Alliance of Entrepreneural Universities in Africa. The Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University and Stellenbosch University are part of this project.

We are proud to announce that South Africa is the coordinator of the Alliance Working Group, and more than 30 institutions in the continent have become members.

Working with UN Women, International Telecommunication Union and the African Union Commission, we are implementing the African Girls Can Code Initiative.

This is a four-year programme that aims to expose and equip young girls with digital literacy, coding and personal development skills, targeting a minimum of 2 000 girls between 17 and 25 years by 2023.

In conclusion, behind all these figures and statistics we have shared here today, are human beings, families and communities, whose expectation is that this budget will indeed impact their lives in a fundamental way.

If any of the political parties here tell you that they oppose this budget, then there can be only one conclusion: such political parties are opposed to the people, do not understand the impact that science have on the people, and are bent on undermining the transformational and reformative impact that the budget has on the future of our country.

This Budget embodies the needs, interests and aspirations of the people.

Most importantly, through this Budget, we seek to help restore the hope among our people that, despite our challenges, we must continue to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.

Thank you for listening.