Delivered on behalf of the Minister of Science and Technology by Dr Bethuel Sehlapelo, Deputy Director General: Human Capital and Knowledge Systems

Programme Director;

The CEO of SANParks, Dr David Mabunda;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen

At the heart of the presentation of the Kudu Awards is the need to inculcate the love for our fauna and flora, and to encourage everyone to take responsibility to conserve and sustain South Africa’s biodiversity, landscapes and heritage for posterity.

It is indisputable that rapid technological development has tremendously improved our lives. Human life expectancy has generally improved. Infant mortality has declined. Transportation and telecommunications have improved trade among countries and continents. 

But it is equally true that technological development has also impacted negatively to the environment. Evidence abounds of many technological interventions that have gone wrong. These include the deterioration of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Cabinet has approved my Department’s Ten Year Innovation Plan whose main purpose is to develop innovative capacity to deal with negative technological developments.

The Plan identifies strategies for addressing specific five grand challenges. One of the grand challenges identifies the need to utilise biotechnology and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to exploit for the benefit of all South Africa’s rich biodiversity.

This is the Farmer to Pharma grand challenge. The aim is to position the country to compete favourably in the emerging bio-economy. South Africa boasts an expansive innovation system. Coupled with the nation’s indigenous knowledge and rich biodiversity, a successful implementation plan for this grand challenge will place South Africa among the top three emerging economies in the global pharmaceutical and related industries.

Indigenous or traditional communities have their way of engaging with their environment and its genetic resources, and have for many years utilised the country’s rich biodiversity in a sustainable way.

The wealth of indigenous knowledge that lies with practitioners, knowledge holders and communities range from farming and hunting practices to healing procedures.

Biotechnology is one of the recent waves of technological innovation reshaping the way we live. It offers solutions to some of the major societal challenges such as healthcare, environmental degradation, food security and safety and energy supply.

Both IKS and biotechnology rely on biodiversity to thrive. Therefore, in order to address South Africa’s national imperatives such as health and food safety and security, and to create wealth, the strategic juxtaposition of developments in IKS and biotechnology is critical. 

Furthermore, the National Indigenous Knowledge Systems (NIKSO) in the Department of Science and Technology is looking into investigating how the Totem system (go ana) would have (if anything) contributed to conservation of South Africa’s fauna.

These are examples of areas where the recognition and rewards associated with the Kudu Awards can play a very critical role in encouraging schools, communities and private sector to increase national efforts in conserving our national heritage.

Another grand challenge in the Ten Year Innovation Plan relates to global change. Through this, the department aims to stimulate multidisciplinary thinking into the changes taking place on planet earth, and to encourage South African researchers to identify innovative ways of responding to these changes.

Through our research and development mandate, we hope to develop adequate and appropriate capacity within the scientific and policy communities to understand earth systems, and the influence of natural and human activities on these systems, in order to improve decision making processes.

Environmental concerns and issues of sustainable development have moved increasingly to the centre stage. Current global challenges, including climate change, energy shortages and food security have added to the urgency to address these issues.

But the country is facing a major challenge in dealing with the skills versus unemployment contradiction. Calls to increase the number of science, engineering and technology graduates and for skills development are made amid an increase in the number of unemployed science graduates.

The assumption is that we do not have enough skills or SET graduates, but we have mainly African women with SET degrees being unemployment.

My Department is responding to this anomaly through, among others, the National Youth Service the Minister will be launching tomorrow. But the backlogs are huge to be effectively only be dealt with by Government Departments.

SANParks is invited to find ways of arresting this problem and building into its strategies and plans ways to create sustainable employment or self employment opportunities. 

South Africa has made, and continues to make, important contributions to the global pool of knowledge on environmental sciences and global change. We have world-class research programmes that are advancing our understanding of the behaviour of the Southern Oceans, the interaction between oceans and the atmosphere, in earth sciences, and in the interaction between the social and ecological systems.

I am confident that the Scientific Services unit of SANParks, with its focus on the biophysical sciences, would find connections with the Ten Year Innovation Plan.

Lastly, the DST is supporting the National Research Foundation and through the National Zoological Gardens to establish and develop a  Wildlife Research Centre at the NZG to increase the number of researchers and intensity of research in this important area of our heritage.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate not only the winners but also the nominees for participating in this 4^th Annual Kudu Awards.