Honourable Chairperson;
Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Honourable Buti Manamela
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Education, Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture, Mr Elleck Nchabeleng;
Honourable MECs;
Acting DHET DG, Ms Thembisa Futshane
DSI Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara;
Leadership of the PSET and NSI fraternity;
Honourable Members
It is my pleasure once more to address the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) today, marking my fourth address to the House since the beginning of our sixth Administration, led by President Cyril Mathamela Ramaphosa.
Although my Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation is a national function, our work as the Ministry is grounded in all our provinces and in many localities through our regional offices and institutional landscape.
I am grateful to the support I continue to receive from Premiers and MECs of Education and Economic Development in various provinces. This support has been aptly demonstrated through various projects that both my Department of Higher Education and Science and Innovation is implementing in all our provinces and municipalities.
In recent times this support was also demonstrated recently during my official handing over of the off the grid media/computer lab as part of my Ministerial Project at Moloke Primary School in Limpopo.
The next provinces to benefit from this off the grid media/computer lab project is Mpumalanga, North West and the Eastern Cape provinces.
Honourable Members
Our Department of Higher Education and Training strives to create a South Africa that can provide decent opportunities for youth and adults through education and skills development initiatives.
In order to align the skills required by our economy, we are reconceptualising the Human Resource Development Strategy of South Africa (HRDSA) and development of its implementation Plan called the Country-Wide Master Skills Plan (MSP).
In this financial year, we will also be updating our National List of Occupations in High Demand and for the first time piloting the provincial lists of Occupations in High Demand in collaboration with the Mpumalanga and the Western Cape provinces.
To ensure access to the children of the working class and the poor to our PSET, through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), we are funding about 1.1 million students with a budget allocation of R47,6 billion in the current financial year. Of this amount, universities have been allocated R38.6 billion and TVET Colleges R8,9 billion. It is the first time in the history of NSFAS that we passed the 1million mark in NSFAS student funding.
We are now working towards the finalisation of a new Comprehensive Student Funding Model, based on the considerations of this report which we aim to submit to Cabinet before the end of this year.
Through this we aim to introduce measures to support all the categories of students including those who are not supported by the current NSFAS funding policy.
Honourable Members
Our National Development Plan commits to grow technical and vocational training with specific emphasis on its size and shape, differentiation, articulation, efficiency and functional effectiveness in response to the broader national development challenges.
Our SETAs have injected R138 600 000 for the workplace training which was paid directly to employers to produce more artisans!
Currently, South Africa is producing on average 20 000 qualified artisans per year. Ours is to ensure that the number increase significantly To meeting our National Development Plan (NDP) target to produce 30 000 qualified artisans per year by 2030.
We have expanded our Centres of Specialisation to thirty-four (34) Centres at twenty (20) TVET Colleges, to enhance workplace linked training of artisans and related occupations, with a further investment of R68 million in sixteen (16) of our Colleges who now have thirty-three (33) Trade Test Centres. These trade test centres have trade tested over 600 apprentices of which over 500 have qualified as artisans.
Currently twenty-six (26) of our colleges are engaged in entrepreneurial training through our Entrepreneurship Hubs. We are hard at work to ensure that all our colleges are involved in some form of entrepreneurship training and we plan to, through our DSI, also introduce innovation hubs in our TVET colleges.
To date our Department has opened up 14****954 TVET placement opportunities to the value of R726 Million and we also committed to achieve a target of 20 000 placements of TVET graduates work placements as per the President’s commitment at this year’s State of the Nation Address.
Career Development Services
Through our Career Development Services, our Department participated in 36 career exhibitions and 41 career and employability sessions which benefited 72 175 grade 9-12 learners and unemployed youth in all our provinces.
More than 1264 Educators, Student Support Services Staff and Career Development Practitioners in our provinces participated in career related capacity building that we conducted as a Department.
Honourable Members
CET Infrastructure
In pursuit of our commitment to elevate the status of Community Education and Training and to accommodate youth "Not in Education, Employment, or Training" (NEET), we have repriotised R1.052 billion over the current MTEF period for the development of infrastructure across all nine (9) CET Colleges. Planning for the construction has commenced in the current financial year.
Ninety-six percent (96%) of Community College Learning Centres operate from public schools, therefore building these Centres will enable Community Colleges to have much needed suitable infrastructure for offering a combination of academic, skills, occupational and non-formal programmes.
In am delighted to indicate that our Community Colleges are now providing skills and non-formal programmes that leads to opportunities for sustainable livelihoods, and these are in addition to academic programme offerings for youth and adults who never had the opportunity to complete their schooling.
TVET Infrastructure
To date, our Department has invested over R3.701 Billion for the maintenance and repairs of TVET Colleges’ infrastructure through the Capital Infrastructure and Efficiency Grant (CIEG) since the grant inception during the 2018/19 financial year.
Areas of maintenance includes renovations of existing student accommodation, new roofing, painting, plumbing, glazing, electrical works, water as well as sewer reticulation.
We have also completed the construction of nine (9) TVET college Campuses at a cost of R2.6 billion. This therefore means that the majority of our students mostly in the rural areas of our country will have access to technical and vocational education.
Our completed campuses comprises of the following:
- Mgungundlovu TVET College, Msinga campus; KZN
- Esayidi TVET College, Umzimkhulu campus; KZN
- Mthashana TVET College, Nongoma campus; KZN
- Mthashana TVET College, Kwagqikazi campus; KZN
- Ikhala TVET College, Aliwal North campus; EC
- Ingwe TVET College, Ngqungqushe campus, EC
- Eastcape Midlands TVET College, Graff Reinet, EC
- Waterberg TVET College, Thabazimbi, Limpopo; and
- Mfolozi TVET College, Nkandla A, KZN
In addition, work is proceeding at Ikhala TVET College (Sterkspruit Campus) and Gert Sibande TVET College (Balfour campus). Planning is under way for the completion of uMgungundlovu TVET College (Greytown Campus) and uMfolozi TVET College (Bhambanana Campus).
This ANC government has committed and delivered to the people of South Africa!!!
University Infrastructure
Honourable Members
Our total amount currently available for investment in infrastructure projects across all the 26 existing universities during the 2023/24-2025/26 MTEF period is R8.662 billion.
Feasibility studies for the establishment of the University of Science and Innovation in Ekurhuleni and the Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal have been completed and will be presented to Cabinet for its consideration.
The construction of these two new university will see a total of four new universities built by the ANC government since the dawn of our democracy in 1994; a huge achievement indeed. They will add to the Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape and the University of Mpumalanga in the Mpumalanga province.
We have completed the process towards the allocation of the R182.11 million towards our multi-educational institution of Imbali Education and Science Precinct for accelerated implementation.
In 2023/24, through the Department of Science and Innovation’s Mobile Applications Laboratory, or mLab, we will strengthen the precinct's 4IR innovation system together with Innobiz – the Durban University of Technology's Midlands Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
The MLab will establish a community-centred coding laboratory and start an ecosystem development programme focused on school learners and selected community members.
We now have commenced with the feasibility study of the Giyani Education Precinct in Limpopo through the establishment of a University Campus working with the Tshwane University of Technology.
The feasibility study on the establishment of the University of Zululand satellite campus in Ulundi has been completed. The construction design phase for this Campus will commence in this current financial year with the actual construction commencing in the 2024/25 financial year.
We now have completed the building of the Sekhukhune Skills Development Centre to the value of R146.9 million, through our Wholesale and Retail SETA, in collaboration with the Sekhukhune TVET college.
Student Housing Infrastructure Programme
The review of the existing DHET-National Treasury-DBSA partnership for the delivery of the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme (SHIP) is reaching finality. In the meantime, a total of 8282 beds have been delivered across 6 institutions at a cost of R2.13 billion.
The following institutions have benefited through the SHIP programme:
- Nelson Mandela University, George campus received 198 beds;
- North-West University, Mahikeng campus received 1728 beds;
- University of Western Cape, Bellville campus received 2720 beds;
- Nelson Mandela University, Summerstrand campus received 1800 beds;
- University of Fort Hare, East London campus received 1437 beds;
- Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark campus received 1836
Funding for Phase 2 SHIP projects at the four (4) institutions, namely Gert Sibande TVET College, Majuba TVET College, Tshwane University of Technology, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal has been approved and the planning for these projects has commenced with the total budget for these projects projected at R2.136 billion.
Honourable Members
Our Department of Science and Innovation in collaboration with the South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA), the Viability and Validation of Innovations for Service Delivery Programme (VVISDP), we are piloting technologies and innovations that can improve the delivery of basic services such as water, sanitation, renewable energy and waste management at local government level. We are currently supporting thirty-two (32) municipalities are currently supported through the programme.
Through the Living Labs Programme, we have established 11 community-embedded labs in rural villages and townships. These labs are in KwaMashu, Cato Manor and Kokstad (KwaZulu-Natal), Athlone (Western Cape), Bofolo and New Brighton (Eastern Cape), Phuthaditjhaba (Free State), Rakgatla and Mosiane (North West), and Kuruman and Barkly West (Northern Cape). These labs supported 200 aspiring innovators through design thinking training, the development of 28 prototypes and 17 market-ready products, and the registration of 14 businesses.
To support municipalities in driving an innovation-led local economic development (LED) agenda, we initiated the Innovation Champions for LED Programme, which will be rolled out to all our 44 districts in the country in support of the District Development Model (DDM) to ensure that innovation is entrenched at grassroots level.
We are currently implementing the programme in the Vhembe and OR Tambo District Municipalities in partnership with the University of Venda, Walter Sisulu University and other LED actors.
Through the Grassroots Innovation Programme (GIP), we have enlisted over 140 young entrepreneurs and an additional 60 enrolled through our 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. Through this programme, over R10m has been leveraged to support these innovators.
We will also 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.
In response to the growing cancer challenge in the African continent, tomorrow here in the Western Cape, we are launching the South African Isotope Facility (SAIF) which is managed by the DSI entity, the National Research Foundation. This is our flagship programme based at iThemba LABS and the facility will conduct advance research and training capacity as well as increase the production capacity for radioisotopes, including new-generation novel radioisotopes.
In conclusion, I call upon the members of the NCOP to support our initiatives to provide strategic leadership to the PSET system and the NSI through the development of appropriate steering mechanisms; effective oversight, monitoring and evaluation.
I thank you all
