Minister Blade Nzimande: 2024 Science Forum South Africa

Programme Director;
Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps; Representatives of governments;
Representatives of research and academic institutions; Business leaders and entrepreneurs;
Civil society organisations;
Delegates to the Science Forum South Africa 2024; Students;
Distinguished guests; Ladies and gentlemen:

It is my honour and privilege to deliver this opening address to the Science Forum South Africa 2024.

The strategic importance of the SFSA 2024

The Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) was first convened in 2015 with the view to provide Africa with an “Open Science” event similar to ones hosted in other parts of the world. Today, SFSA is the largest and most prestigious event of its kind on the African continent.

This forum continues to serve as a platform for dynamic debate among key stakeholders in our local and global scientific communities. It also seeks to advance the African Open science agenda to promote a socially-just, democratic, and more equal world in which Africa can play its rightful part in the making of a sustainable future for all.

Therefore, a critical part of SFSA is the strengthening and creation of local, regional, and international science networks and partnerships. I must also emphasise the distinguishing features of SFSA.

Firstly, participation at SFSA is open to all and free of charge. This gives concrete expression to our commitment to ‘open science’ – and not something being given lip service to. Secondly, SFSA has a strong focus on the historically specific context of African science and the role scientists are playing in promoting a scientific and technologically-enabled future for the continent and its place in the world.

And thirdly, the SASF also has a strong youth focus, as they have to take the lead in the future of African science, technology, and innovation. Some of the exciting features of SFSA 2024. The SFSA brings together more than 80 countries, with more than 4000 participants registered for 2024.

One of the highlights for this year is the address by our country’s former Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Naledi Pandor. She will do a reflection on the evolution of science, technology, and innovation, over the past 30 years of our democracy.

I am also grateful that the Forum programme is also supporting our national campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and

Children, with a dedicated session to present and discuss the results of a major national research effort to better respond to the scourge of Gender- based violence in South Africa.

As in the past, the SFSA programme offers participants a diverse range of discussion themes co-created with the NSI community and global partners. In total the SFSA 2024 will have 3 (three) plenary sessions, 68(sixty-eight) panels, 30 (thirty) side events, 80 (eighty) exhibitions. The 68 (sixty-eight) panels    covering    themes    such as Youth    in    Science, Technology    and Innovation, Science, Technology, and Innovation partnerships and the G20, and Science and Economic Diplomacy.

The other discussion themes include Industries of the Future, Global science for humanity, Science communication and journalism, and Enabling the potential of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

Equally exciting are the side events which include the African Union event on Youth Innovation, A masterclass in science diplomacy presented by the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa platform, and a training programme for science journalists of Southern Africa.

The launch of the first report of the South African Public Relationship with Science survey. Another vital component of the SFSA is science engagement and for this reason, we have also decided to use the occasion of SFSA 2024 to launch South Africa’s first report on the South African Public Relationship with Science survey.

Through our 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation, we committed to creating suitable metrics to gauge our progress in relation to science engagement. This is why we asked our entity, the Human Sciences research Council to independently conduct the South African Public Relationship with Science Survey.

The survey seeks to enlighten us on how we are faring as a country in the area of science engagement and accordingly, makes a number of important observations.

From tomorrow, the digital version of the report will be available on several websites, including those of our department and that of the HSRC. I wish to encourage all our stakeholders to obtain this report. The highlights of the report will also be presented during tomorrow afternoon’s plenary session, which I encourage you to attend.

We also intend to solicit the opinions of our stakeholders through stakeholder engagement sessions that will be announced soon. This is the first report of its kind in the history of our country, and we regard it as an important enabler of our department’s science engagement programme.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my honour and privilege to formally announce the release of the 2022 South African Public Relationship with Science survey report.

Using science to improve the human condition

We recognise and embrace the fact that South Africa is part of the African continent and the world and further believe that whatever we do in the area of science must be guided by this understanding.

Today, we live in an epoch that is witnessing some of the most breathtaking technological innovations in such areas as information and communication technologies, biotechnology and personalised medicine, generative AI, Quantum Computing, robotics, and automation, blockchain and decentralised technologies, and others.

However, what is also true is the disturbing fact that we also live in one of the most unequal times in human history. All credible inequality indices point to the fact that about 10% of the world’s population owns over 70% of the world’s wealth and that this same 10% also takes over 50% of the global income and is responsible for over 40% of global carbon emissions.

This is completely antithetical to the very claims being made about ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ in politics. We turn to the SFSA to develop concrete ideas on how we can successfully transform the relations of inequality within our continent, its place in a changing global order, and the very nature of that global order.

The recently adopted Pact For The Future by the United Nations with its 56 Action Steps, in which science, technology and innovation play a catalytic role, should be a framework of reference in our work.

Addressing Africa’s challenges through science

Africa’s ability to realise its full potential continues to be impeded by a number of historical and structural factors, and more particularly the persisting legacies of colonial underdevelopment.

One of the things we need to change is how we engage with the rest of the world as the African continent, not just in the area of science, but in all areas of human development.

As science policy makers on the African continent, we cannot perpetuate an international relations approach that continues to reduce Africa to a mere supplier of natural resources and skills for the other regions of the world.

Therefore, one of the areas I believe we must give critical attention to is the funding of research in Africa and the development of a sovereign African research agenda. We cannot have an African research agenda funded, in the main, by donors, regardless of their stated intentions.

We need to have research funding mechanisms that are designed and financed by Africans and totally committed to the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and for our genuine friends to support such an effort.

The issue of research funding is critical for the strengthening Africa’s scientific capacity and technological sovereignty to tackle our continent’s disease burden by among others developing pandemic preparedness capacity, increasing access to education, water, and energy, and addressing new challenges such as climate change and digital inequality.

It is therefore critical that SFSA express and mobilise greater support for the implementation of the Africa Union’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy (STISA). STISA provides our continent with a useful framework for the development of science, technology, and innovation in Africa.

South Africa’s key STI advances/successes in recent years

Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, we have made a number of commendable strides in our efforts to enhance our country’s capabilities in science, technology, and innovation.

As a result of these investments, our share of global research output (0,98%) has increased and making a difference in areas such as health innovation (HIV/Aids), developing rural livelihoods and international big science projects like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). However, this is far from our true potential.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was African scientists, here in South Africa, who first identified and sequenced the genome of a new and virulent SARS-CoV-2 variant, later named 501Y.V2.

This pioneering work gave the global pandemic management community crucial time to put in place measures to control its spread and to develop new vaccines and therapies.

This work was largely funded by our Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation and based at our public universities and Science Councils who are fully committed to ‘open science’ and ‘science for public good.’

We have not also developed our Vaccine Innovation and Management Strategy, whose main aim is to develop capacity for vaccines development in our country, especially those vaccines needed on the African continent. Enormous advances have already been made in this regard, notably now having the capacity to produce a lot of vaccines here in South Africa!

Some of these successes I am mentioning will form part of the exhibitions of SFSA 2024 and I wish to invite all participants to visit the exhibitions.

Placing science, technology, and innovation at the centre of government, industry, and society

Guided by our two overarching science, technology, and innovation policy guides- our 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Decadal Plan for Science, Technology, and Innovation for the period 2022 to 2032, over the next five years, we will continue to use science, technology, and innovation to address South Africa’s development priorities.

Towards this end, as the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, we have recently adopted as our guide to action, our mantra: Placing Science, Technology, and Innovation at the centre of Government, Society, and Industry.

In furtherance of this call to action, South Africa will continue to invest in research and the development of technologies in key economic sectors such as energy, agriculture, mining, health, and the circular and digital economies. As part of driving health innovation, one of our priorities is to ensure South Africa develops credible pandemic preparedness capacity, more specifically local vaccine manufacturing capacity.

We have already finished the development of our Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing Strategy framework or (VIMS). Our focus on developing local vaccine development and manufacturing is informed by a number of strategic considerations.

As a country and continent, we cannot continue normalising the negative power dynamic where the entire African continent continues finds itself at the mercy of foreign pharmaceuticals, for the provision of life saving vaccines to our own citizens.

South Africa we will also continue investing in the production of critical high- end skills. Last year our President, His Excellency, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced the establishment of the Presidential PhD Programme (PPhP).

Through this Programme, we seek to increase the number of highly skilled individuals in high priority areas by exposing South Africa’s most promising minds to the best (and relevant) universities, private facilities, and industries in other parts of the world.

Once they have received this training and exposure, we want these young scientists and researchers, to come back and use whatever they have learned to help address South Africa’s development challenges, including enhancing our country’s scientific capabilities.

As the DSTl, all our science, technology, and innovation interventions of are course aimed at supporting our country’s apex development priorities which were articulated by our President at the opening of Parliament in July this year. These national priorities are:

• Inclusive growth and job creation;
• Reducing poverty and tackling the high cost of living; and
• Build a capable, ethical, and developmental state.

Building a just world through science

In conclusion, guided by our country’s international policy, we will continue deepening strategic global partnerships with a priority focus on the African continent and the Global South.

Earlier today, our President, formally briefed the country on South Africa’s G20 presidency. We will certainly be looking at ways in which SFSA 2024 can be used to support and advance South Africa’s G20 priorities in 2025.

Science and society are indivisible, and scientists cannot be oblivious or neutral to injustices taking place around them. This is especially true for Africans, given the long history of colonialism and racism, in which science itself was used as tools of subjugation and exploitation.

Therefore, we will continue to use science diplomacy to foster social justice and human solidarity. In July this year, I formally announced a new programme to enable cooperation in science, technology and innovation between South Africa and Palestine.

The programme will also have as special focus support for safeguarding, rebuilding, and developing Palestine’s research and innovation capacities and infrastructure.

The programme will be implemented by the NRF and will entail a number of elements. The NRF has already published a call for expressions of interest for South African organisations, including universities and civil society not for profit organisations, to submit proposals for collaborative actions with Palestine.

Although South Africa will provide all funding, our department will seek to work closely with the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Research for its implementation. We will approach other countries, together with international organisations like UNESCO, to join this effort.

There is credible evidence that scientific inventions continue to be used to fuel wars, genocide, and the destruction of precious human civilisations, and for this reason, as the scientific community in South Africa and Africa, we cannot endorse the view that says: science must be neutral in the midst of injustice.

Besides, neutrality in the face of prevailing injustice is a tacit endorsement of injustice. Therefore, we must use the tools and language of science to speak truth to unjust power and forge solidarity with all peoples under threat of genocide and subjugation.

Earlier today, our President formally briefed the country on South Africa’s G20 Presidency. The President also used the opportunity to outline South Africa’s G20 priorities, which are as follows: Inclusive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Employment and Reduced Inequality, Food Security, Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, and Innovation for Sustainable Development.

The President also emphasised the importance of ensuring that we use our G20 Presidency to ensure the needs of the African continent, and the Global South enjoy priority on the international development agenda.

We are also excited to be hosting the World Conference on Science Journalists from 1 to 5 December 2025, which will also be held here at the CSIR. We wish to express our gratitude to the South African Association of Science Journalists as well as the World Federation of Science Journalists, for their support, to ensure that we put science at the centre of government, industry, and society.

In conclusion, Science Forum South Africa is a prestigious gathering that provides us with the unique opportunity to continue interrogating the value of science to humanity and to be more deliberate and forceful about using science to create a more equal and just world.

It is therefore my sincere hope that all delegates will adopt this as our agenda as we continue to build a better Africa and world, through science. It is now my honour and privilege to declare Science Forum South Africa 2024, officially open.

Thank you for your attention. As the SFSA slogan goes, let’s ignite conversations about science.