Chairperson, Ms Tsakani Shiviti;

Honourable Members;

Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ms Nomalungelo Gina;

Acting Director-General, Ms Gugulethu Zwane;

DDGs;

Senior officials from the Department;

Officials from my office.

It is always a pleasure for me to be able to appear in front of the Committee and to interact with Members. I wish to start by thanking the Committee for the support we received ever since we started under the 7^th administration. It is my hope that we will continue to work together, particularly on issues of common interest.

Honourable Chairperson and Honourable Members, I also wish to apologise in advance because I had requested to be excused at some point in the meeting.

I have to attend the International Cooperation, Trade and Security (ICST) Ministerial Cluster meeting. I therefore hope Honourable will understand as this is part of my responsibilities as a member of the Executive.

It is perhaps fitting that I start by announcing that, on 27 September 2024, through the Government Gazette, the President, His Excellency, Cyril Ramaphosa, formally proclaimed the name change of our Department to be the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).

The importance of parliamentary committees

As stated before, the Deputy Minister and I, regard the Portfolio Committee not just as critical for ensuring that the executive arm of the state is held to account, but we also recognise the vital role of the Committee in giving constructive feedback on the work of our department and its entities.

For this reason, as Minister, I wish to maintain a dynamic and constructive relationship between our Department and the Portfolio Committee. By this I mean, the Deputy Minister and I are open to suggestions or recommendations from the Committee or its Members, on how our Department or its entities can improve on their work.

The strategic focus areas of the Department.

Guided by our White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, our Decadal Plan and the priorities of the 7^th administration as articulated by the President, during the opening of Parliament, the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation will continue its broad strategic focus on ensuring that we use science, technology, and innovation to address some of our country’s most social urgent challenges.

This means using science to develop practical solutions for challenges such as poverty, unemployment (especially among our young people), and the development of critical scientific skills and strengthening existing relations with countries on the African continent and other regions of the world, with a strong focus on South-to-South relations.

To enable the realisation of these goals, we will also continue to build the necessary science infrastructure and support the training and development of young, black and women scientists and researchers.

We will also continue investing in key development areas such as the modernisation of mining, agriculture, manufacturing, health innovation and continued investments in new growth areas such as the circular economy.

All of this we will do with the support of our various entities and with the view of achieving our strategic objective of putting science at the centre of government’s work. I wish to appeal for the Committee’s support in this regard.

Performance highlight for the period under review

Some of the Department’s performance highlights for the period under review, include the following:

• The Department’s performance stands at 87%, a 7% improvement from the previous financial year. This is the result of the deliberate efforts we made to improve our performance in subsequent years so as to ensure that the majority of promises made in the APP and Strategic Plan are realised.
• On the matter of finances, the Department has spent 99.1% of its total budget of R10, 562 billion. We will continue to improve on the financial performance. The CFO will elaborate on this.
• In the area of heath innovation, we have successfully developed and have started implementing our Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing Strategy (VIMS), through which we intend to enhance our country’s capacity to develop vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic capacities targeting various diseases relevant to the Global South, with particular emphasis on the African continent.
• The next phase of work in the VIMS programme will focus on raising levels of collaboration in vaccine research, technological innovation, human resources and infrastructure development linked to wider efforts to bolster the resilience of our health economy. By doing so, our Department will be contributing significantly to South Africa’s pandemic preparedness.
• In the area of commercialisation and local manufacturing opportunities, we conclude a collaboration agreement with the Public Investment Corporation to support the commercialisation and local manufacturing opportunities arising from publicly funded intellectual property. R53 million has been provided as an initial investment to support a woman-led SMME in the hydrogen economy.
• In the area of energy security, the Department has committed to establishing a national solar energy research facility. The facility will be a platform to review and derisk new technologies, as well as supporting technology transfer and localisation as described in the Renewable Energy Masterplan.

There are of course also areas where we have not met some of our targets and these concern me greatly as the Minister.

Greater detail on these areas will be shared in the Department’s presentation and indication of what steps are being taken to address these weaknesses in our organisational performance.

The focus of today’s presentation

To give Members a sense of the Department’s performance over the 23/24 financial year, today’s presentation will be on the 2023/24 Annual Reports and Audit Outcomes. The presentation will focus on the following:

• Vision and mission of the Department;
• Outcome goals;
• Overall performance;
• Performance highlights;
• Performance overview per programme; and
• Financial performance.

As stated, I am accompanied by the Acting Director-General, the DDGs and senior officials of the Department. With your permission Chairperson, I now wish to hand over to the Acting Director General, Ms Gugulethu Zwane to lead the presentation.

Thank you.