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

Mr Vuyani Jarana, Chairperson of the CSIR Board;

Dr Thulani Dlamini, CEO of the CSIR;

Acting Director-General, Ms Gugu Zwane;

DDGs from my Department;

Senior Scientists and Researchers;

Officials from my office:

I am delighted to be here and to have the opportunity to interact with the leadership and staff of the CSIR.

I should perhaps start by commending you for your outstanding organisational performance as reflected in your 2023/24 Annual Report. For the period under review, your organisational performance was impressive.

As with all our entities, there are of course those areas that require constant attention such as institutional governance, institutional transformation and your research priorities and investments.

The importance of the CSIR to our country

The CSIR is one of our country’s oldest state entities and premier scientific and technology research organisations that research, develops, localises and diffuses technologies to accelerate socioeconomic prosperity in South Africa.

Since the dawn of our democracy, the CSIR has produced a number of high-quality research and technologies that have helped address some of our country’s most urgent national challenges.

For example, in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council, the CSIR developed a precision agriculture information system that uses drones and other transformative technologies to support farmers with near real time information to enhance decision making on the farm.

Working the Department of Home Affairs, the CSIR helped to design and develop a secure identity framework that enabled the department to issue South Africans with a new Smart ID card embedded with security features aimed at significantly reducing potential forgery.

More recently, in support of government’s national response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CSIR took the lead in the digital design and production of a local ventilator. This, as you know, was part of government’s National Ventilator Project (NVP).

The purpose of the Ministerial visits to the entities

Arising from my knowledge of the high quality work that is being done here at the CSIR and at our other entities, one of the things that has been bothering me is the fact that, during my term as Minister under the sixth administration, due to reasons beyond my control, the other department I was responsible for, enjoyed far greater attention than the Department of Science and Innovation (now the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation).

I therefore view my return to the STI portfolio as the perfect opportunity to ensure that I give the STI portfolio the attention I believe it deserves, given its capacity to help unlock some of our country’s critical skills capabilities.

Driven by my enthusiasm about my return to STI portfolio, I committed to the President that, during this term, one of my strategic objectives is to elevate the profile of science, technology, and innovation by placing STI at the centre of government’s work.

This means among others, as the National System of Innovation we must work towards a situation where all levels of the state embrace evidence-based policy making and increasingly use the services that are being provided by the CSIR and our other entities.

My enthusiasm was even more enhanced when the President recently told me that he would like to come and visit the CSIR. If all goes according to plan, we could soon be hosting the President here at the CSIR.

In line with our strategic objective of placing STI at the centre of government’s work and society, one of the other commitments I made to the Acting DG and her team, was to undertake a programme to meet with all our entities.

There are a number of reasons why I believe it is important for me as the Minister to meet with all our entities. First, I wish to use these visits to gain a deeper understanding of the work that is being done by our entities. I want to fully understand the strategic focus areas of each of our entities.

The second reason is to strengthen the relationship between our entities and the Department. As the DSTI, the delivery of our mandate is highly dependent on our entities and for this reason, a healthy and productive relationship between the DSTI and its entities is absolutely critical.

The third reason is that I am of the view of that the CSIR like many of our entities is doing absolutely wonderful and life-changing work, but I don’t get the sense that, as a system we are communicating our work as vigorously and innovatively as we should.

As Minister, I wish to urge the CSIR and all our entities to review their existing science engagement programmes, with the view of making them more effective.

For my part, I have asked my department to help me explore the introduction of a National Science Month programme, as opposed to our current National Science Week.

In addition to this, it is also my wish that, before the end of my term, each of our (9) nine provinces must have a high calibre science centre. If we can get more than one per province, even better.

I hope we can rely on the knowledge and expertise of entities such as the CSIR in this regard. Fourth and perhaps most importantly, the other reason for undertaking this programme of visits to our entities is because I am also interested in meeting the people who are doing the wonderful work within our entities.

I want them to share their ideas on how we can become more effective and efficient as the National System of Innovation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if we are to succeed in placing science, technology and innovation at the centre of government’s work and society, we will need the support of each of our entities and the people within them.

As stated previously, I am prepared to become the political champion for the wonderful work that is being done by all our entities, use me.