The Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation will schedule a session where it will receive a detailed briefing on both the Decadal Plan and the White Paper on Innovation.
The Decadal Plan is an implementation plan for the new Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) White Paper that identifies the key STI focal areas for the next 10 years and also sets a new way to plan, coordinate and fund STI.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology, and Innovation, Ms Tsakani Shiviti, said the new members of the committee looked forward to the presentation of the Decadal Plan and the White Paper. “We will have to have a proper session to look into the decadal plan,” she said.
The committee had earlier received a briefing from the National Advisory Council on Innovation where it was made aware of budgetary challenges as the entity looked to modernise and reposition itself. NACI Board chairperson highlighted the challenge that commissioners worked for the council on a temporary basis. According to the NACI Board, innovation is no longer a feel-good conversation, as it underpins development.
Members of the committee engaged with the presentations and said for technological advancements we need not wait on the private sector but government needed to lead and take the risks. Clarity was sought on the repositioning of the NACI, its relevance, curriculums at universities on science subjects, and how vacancies affected its operations.
Committee member Mr Lufefe Mkuthu sought clarity on the intended renewal and reposition of the NACI. He said he had a sense that there was no underlying agenda at the NACI as it did not reflect in the presentation. He said there seem to be no relevance of the entity to the developmental challenges the country faced. “The structural challenges are still perpetuated by inequality and class that eventually has a racial undertone.”
He asked what view the entity had on beneficiation in the country especially around the ongoing debate to reindustrialise the economy. “What links are there between the work you do and the re-industrialisation narrative that is ongoing in the country? What are you saying about exclusions of some sectors? We cannot be discussing malicious compliance matters; we can’t have talk shops and we go home after.”
Ms Shiviti said the lack of trust between science and people is not because people are sceptical about the available science. “Sometimes there is no link to their everyday lives and what is being scientifically developed. We need to look at how people survived on their own, then develop solutions that were relevant.”
She said for trust to develop, NACI needs to advise on technologies that come to the country. “Other countries block technologies that work to frustrate their own good and development,” she said. She also lamented the lack of marketing of South African innovation progress in the media.
It was responded that the NACI is not an implementing agency and could only advise government on what needs to be done, and what happened was entirely up to government and the entities. In the Decadal Plan and the White Paper we pushed so hard on how to use the STI on how to address the fundamental challenges in the country. We looked to push the transformative agenda.
It was said that the NACI intended to drive some of the pertinent development question in the country and give advice to the minister. The NACI revealed that a detailed business case on its work will be presented by the Minister to the committee. That process must inform the basis of the shift NACI is seeking.
The Minister will bring the work and will provide NACI input on what needs to happen. It was said that emerging economies all have advisory bodies on science matters.
The type of advice should be trusted even by the citizens that it would change their lives. We need to ensure that when scientists talk, there is trust in the kind of view they provide. The representative said the entity had not reflected on curriculum at universities but a study was done in the basic education sector.
“Our advice remains confidential until the minister decide to release it to the public,” the NACI representative said.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) also briefed the committee on its work in line with its mandate. NRF CEO Dr Fulufelo Nelwamondo said it is critical to look into who is doing good science, but also at the knowledge and research done in the country as it was at the epicentre of national development.
Sibongile Maputi
20 August 2024
Arrange a tour