Honourable Chairperson
I would first like to acknowledge that this is the first budget speech of the new Minister of Science and Technology, Honourable Kubayi.
Minister, I think you would have realised by now that this is a well-run department with excellent staff and that they and the entities reporting to the Department have been able to do wonders with the little they receive.
In preparing for this budget speech, I had a look at the previous four years’ speeches and the issues that were raised. It was very clear that a golden thread ran through all the speeches – this is a department with its entities that are totally underfunded.
This budget is unfortunately no different.
The Department’s budget allocation has increased by R233.3 million from R7.6 billion in the 2017/18 financial year to R7.8 billion in the 2018/19 financial year. However, when adjusted for inflation, there is, in fact, a real decrease of 2.3%. The Department’s budget allocation is projected to increase to R8.2 billion in 2019/20 and R8.7 billion in 2020/21. The reality is, that over the medium-term, Cabinet has approved budget reductions of R186.1 million, which will be effected on spending on goods and services, and on the baseline budgets of entities.
Although we are always in favour of budgets where fat and unnecessary expenses are cut, the problem is that due to the unique nature of the mandate of the Department of Science and Technology and the kinds of skills, knowledge and infrastructure needed to fulfil this mandate, a budgetary decrease in real terms will have and already has had severe negative implications.
The Government’s blanket approach to budget cuts cannot be applied to the Department of Science and Technology. This was underscored by the presentations by the Department and the different entities to the portfolio committee. Especially entities such as South African National Space Agency (SANSA), Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) are severely affected by budget constraints.
The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) sector has to attract and retain highly-skilled individuals. There can be no growth, development or even just maintenance of current levels of STI without sufficient funding.
A further demand on the STI sector is that human capital development programmes have to grow to provide for the growing need for experts, scarce skills and knowledge.
The Department and the different entities spend a lot of time and resources to train and supervise students in an effort to provide the required capacity for the STI sector. However, the limited budget and the blanket budget cuts on salary expenses mean that they cannot employ these students. And we have to remember that these are senior researchers.
Critical to any country’s success in STI is the maintenance and acquisition of infrastructure. Unfortunately, this budget does not make this possible and the entities have to make to with ageing infrastructure which will have a negative impact on any progress and development in the country’s STI.
Another aspect that also has to be considered is that when STI initiatives are funded, the funding is required over the full lifetime of these initiatives. The nature of most STI initiatives is such that they often run over many years and there has to be security of funding for the completion of it.
I want to refer to one of the entities to highlight the effect of an underfunded budget on the Science and Technology sector. The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) cannot fully meet its mandate. This includes global navigation satellite services (GNSS) and satellite telecommunications solutions and applications, as well as support to the local space industry. To make it more practical they play an important role in space weather services, and they are busy with a pilot project where ships can be detected that are in our waters illegally.
However, funding for the further development of EO-Sat 1 has not yet been confirmed and this results in inadequate support to the South African space industry and an inability to develop the necessary human capacity. Due to constrained finances, SANSA cannot employ more researchers. It also cannot employ the students it trains. This leads to a loss of credibility, loss of income, and a downgrade in the services offered.
The tragic part of this is that SANSA is regarded globally, based on merit, as the preeminent space agency and strategic leader in space issues on the African continent. This is something that our country and the Science and Technology sector cannot lose.
The question then remains, why does government not ensure that Science, Technology and Innovation are properly funded? Why is it that we have to have the same speeches in the budget speeches for this Vote, year after year?
Science, technology and innovation have long been important drivers of economic growth and human development. This growth relies on research and development at both public and private levels, as well as on an international scale. It is critical that even during periods of economic slowdown, science, technology and innovation continue to receive sufficient funding.
As stated by the G7 Academies’ statement in 2017, growing levels of public and private investments in science and technology are needed to address the challenges of sustainable and inclusive growth. Governments should recognise the key role that expenditure for research, advancement of knowledge, higher education and innovation can play in supporting high-quality socio-economic growth and that these benefits outweigh many short-term concerns for balancing public finances.
One of the root causes of weak growth is the inability or unwillingness to see innovation as a key element in identifying new engines for growth and jobs in a country. In this regard, it became clear during the interactions with the different institutions that there was a recurring theme of a lack of science communication. The Department and the institutions are doing excellent work and are making a meaningful and important contribution to the country. But the problem is, very few know about it and I think this includes government.
Although the Department has a variety of programmes where there is engagement with the public, I think that this is an aspect that should be further explored. Although the Department has funded two chairs in Science Communication, more needs to be done. Not only do we need to encourage the youth to become involved in science and technology with the aim to attract them to the field, but the general public has to understand and appreciate the critical role STI plays in their daily lives. Many of the things we take for granted are due to investment in STI.
To quote Carl Sagan, “[w]e live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
Perhaps if there is a concerted effort and more emphasis placed on science communication, we can look forward to the government understanding that the future growth of the country depends on optimal investment in STI.
As in my previous speech on this Vote, I want to conclude with the words of Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist who really has the ability to communicate science, “Innovations in science and technology are the engines of the 21st-century economy; if you care about the wealth and health of your nation tomorrow, then you’d better rethink how you allocate taxes to fund science.”