26% Budget Increase a Boost for South Africa’s Science & Technology

26 May 2006

Cape Town – Science and Technology Minister, Mosibudi Mangena, today outlined the 2006/7 budget allocation for his department, which has seen an inflow of R1.2 billion of new money for the country’s publicly funded science and technology (s&t) system.

The Department of Science and Technology’s (DST) budget over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has seen an increase of 26% to its budget allocation, most of which will be used to fund new scientific research infrastructure such as the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC).

During his budget vote speech in Parliament this morning, Minister Mangena said that “the [CPHC] will function as a national innovation platform and deliver a significant return on investment for the country by harnessing the application of high-performance computing for positive social impact”.

The Minister added that this will “foster research with particular reference to major infectious diseases such as HIV/Aids, climate change and new research, including amongst other things, semantic and grid Web application simulations for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) design as well as for promoting advanced manufacturing technology through computer simulation of design and manufacturing”.

Top priority on Minister Mangena’s agenda is the need to increase the speed of delivery when he said that “technological and scientific innovation can be viewed as the accelerator that allows our economic growth to increase its speed. The more we can do and the faster we can do it, the richer our lives will become.”

South Africa is involved in a number of s&t initiatives and international partnerships aimed at creating s&t platforms especially in ICT. One major initiative in this regard is the South African Research Network (SANReN) – a high speed network that will enable the exchange of research data between SA research institutions with counterparts around the world.

At the end of three phases of implementation and operationalisation it is envisaged that SANReN will connect approximately 45 institutions through a 10-20 Giga Byte national backbone and a 2.5 Giga Byte international connection to similar research network across the world. Phase one has already begun with a total funding of R178 million over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

Skills development in s&t remains a challenge for the DST a key focus of which is to popularise mathematics and science related careers at high school level. The number of students enrolling for science, engineering and technology (SET) related studies at higher learning institutions remains low compared to other fields. A number of interventions have been identified, including the Youth into Science Strategy, which will be presented to Cabinet during this year.

In closing Minister Mangena said that the “DST has once again delivered on its core mandate. To be precise, DST spent 99.84% of our budget in the previous financial year. This ability to deploy resources, even with a growing budget, is one of the hallmarks of this Department. I think it demonstrates how hungry we are for these allocations, and how quickly we can put them to use.”

Issued by the Department of Science and Technology

For media information please contact:

Nhlanhla Nyide
General Manager: Science Communication, Department of Science and Technology
Cell: +27 (0) 82 871 6767
Email: nhlanhla.nyide@dst.gov.za

Kristin Klose
Communication, Department of Science and Technology,
Cell: +27 (0) 82 902 9503
Email: kristin.klose@dst.gov.za

or

The Ministry of Science and Technology:
Nelvis Qekema, Ministerial Liaison,
Cell: 082 571 2571
Email: nelvis.qekema@dst.gov.za