Honourable Ministers;

Excellencies;

Distinguished International guests;

Valued INSITE participants;

Members of the media;

Colleagues and Friends

A hearty welcome to you all to South Africa`s second International Science, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (INSITE) 2006 - Africa`s premier science and innovation event. We are in distinguished company: To my esteemed colleagues, the Vice Minister of Science & Technology of China, Mr Liu Yanhua and the Ambassador of Japan to SA, Mr Furuya. To the German and Czech delegations, I thank you for making the long plane flights to our continent. Perhaps you will forgive me if I take this moment to add that it is a South African-born engineer, Dr Frank Ogilvie, who is in charge of the aerodynamics in France for the new Airbus A380, the biggest airplane in the world. So, I hope that next time you will travel just a little bit faster to southern Africa, the birthplace of all our common ancestors.

To all our guests, and especially our brothers and sisters from Botswana, a country that sheltered many of my countrymen and women, including myself, when we were forced into exile during the years of struggle against apartheid, I thank you for recognising the importance of this event for our country and continent. Botswana is rich in diamonds, but she is richer still in people.

We also appreciate the support we received from our other friends and neighbours, Namibia on the West Coast, the Kingdom of Lesotho, and Mozambique on the East Coast, all of you contributed greatly to supporting our freedom - often at great personal cost and risk - I also thank you for making this event possible. If it was not for the friendships and alliances forged between our people, our leaders, our activists, and our scientists - South Africans might still be facing a future of isolation, division, violence and rejection. Definitely, there would be little or no opportunity to participate in the global science community. As little as one decade ago, it would not have been possible to hold an event such as INSITE in South Africa. We have come a long way, both in science and in politics, and we could not have done it on our own.

I know all of our guests will be very busy during INSITE, but I do hope you will find the time to meet with some of the scientists from our universities and research institutes. We are very proud of them. I trust you will also have the time to enjoy the performances of some of our innovative science communicators present, which include the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in Johannesburg and the MTN Science Centre in Cape Town.

South Africa is a large and diverse country, and there is interesting and varied science happening in every corner of it. The partnership between politics and science is very strong in South Africa. I know many people, including scientists, who see science as separate from politics and society. Science, politics and society are inextricably intertwined. We all have a responsibility to contribute to the transformation of society for the better, and this can only happen if we continue to strive towards harnessing science to the benefit of society.

In addition to pure science, South Africa is fast developing an international reputation for science outreach in shopping malls, rural schools and in the most unlikely venues - using multilingual science plays, demonstrations and performances. Events such as INSITE complement other activities aimed at creating a greater awareness and understanding of science. Chief among these - and I am sure that all of you have heard of them - include our annual National Science Week, which features science events throughout the country, as well as the ever popular SciFest, which has been held every March in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape since 1994.

South Africa is breaking new ground on how to interest young people in science, especially among poorly resourced schools and across huge language divides. To help further bridge this gap, we are hosting a world conference of science centres later this year at the UniZul Science Centre in Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. A further conference is also planned on African science journalism in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

Communicating the wonders of science is as important as doing the science. We need to instill a passion for science within our neighbours, our families and our friends. By merely showing them a picture of someone my age in a white lab coat is not going to do it! We need to get even more creative about communicating science. This may mean making deliberate attempts to use our indigenous languages in communicating mining and agriculture technology, which are the areas constituting the backbone of our science.

One non-profit organisation has established open-source software in all our 11 official languages to enable more of our people to use computers in their mother tongue. Scientific terminology dictionaries have already been translated into isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, and siSwati, a group of languages which share many features. These dictionaries have also been translated into Sesotho, Sepedi and Setswana, another group of languages having many overlaps, as well as into Xitsonga and Tshivhenda. Similar efforts are underway because we have to be inclusive about science, which is a too important issue to restrict to one or two languages.

Looking around - I must say, it`s been very nice to stay at home here in South Africa and have people visit here. It should happen more often! We have been traveling to a host of significant meetings around the globe earlier this month, including the Science & Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto in Japan and the Group of 77 Ministers of Science and Technology meeting in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Both meetings were able to secure higher levels of commitments from member states to science, innovation and technology to the benefit of the developing world.

At the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Ministers of Science and Technology of the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), we signed an agreement to create a seed fund of R7 million annually in each country to support research and development projects that have potential industrial applications and are of mutual interest and benefit. That meeting pre-empted the IBSA Summit last month at which our respective Heads of State and Government strengthened ties between our countries. They also discussed, among others, the need to develop alternatives to fossil fuel in the context of the threat of climate change. They also debated the continuing use of nuclear energy, which in our case has been known to provide the Western Cape Province with an energy lifeline, via the Koeberg nuclear power plant.

In the Limpopo Province, to the north of our country where I grew up, women walk for kilometers to fetch firewood, and are rendered vulnerable in many different ways. Science can do a lot to alleviate their suffering, but it will take the participation of all sectors of society to start addressing the questions of why we still force our mothers and sisters to hunt for fuel and water instead of starting their own businesses or pursuing careers of their own choice.

South Africa is also investigating another nuclear option, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor as an alternative to coal power, which although we have in abundance, will eventually run out. As the British environmentalist, James Lovelock, points out, “we live in a nuclear-powered universe”. Energy - whether through coal, hydro-electric, bio-fuel or nuclear - is something that we use and mis-use every single day.

Three teenagers from South Africa wrote essays which recently won them a British Council-sponsored trip to a global forum on climate change in London. Their generation may face the consequences of some of our decisions regarding the use of energy. Nonetheless, I am hopeful we will also be able to supply the next generation with enough information to inform the difficult choices they would have to make about balancing development against pollution.

Our longstanding relationships with our partners from Europe and Asia are already bearing fruit in this regard. Unfortunately, these multilateral agendas are not something which will dominate the evening news tonight or grab the headlines in tomorrow`s newspapers. But they are the bedrock of an effective global dialogue on science, technology and innovation development. So we must forge ahead, despite a seemingly lower mass awareness profile.

Another challenge for the developing world, in particular, is a concerted focus on poverty alleviation. It is a mother in Soweto, Mahwelereng or QwaQwa, buying clothes for her children and paying value added tax to the shop owner, who is contributing to the taxes, which go to support our universities and research institutions. We are answerable to her. We need to tell her why it is good that her money goes to science, when she needs it so badly herself. We cannot afford the luxury of maintaining scientists who only speak scientific jargon to fellow scientists in a closed club, on topics that are off-limits to people who do not read peer-reviewed journals.

There is a lot that is already happening across the African continent. Mpoko Bokanga, who is a member of the High-level Panel on Modern Biotechnology, jointly set up by the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa`s Development, says that Kenya`s capital city, Nairobi, now has 15 research institutes, 35 international research organisations and nine fully-fledged universities. Mpoko is involved in setting up an initiative there to encourage scientists, policymakers, journalists and the public to discuss how biotechnology can improve farming. My Kenyan counterpart, Minister Noah Wekesa, says the forum gives scientists an opportunity to bridge the gap between people strongly for and against using biotechnology.

The African Union is forging partnerships with other emerging powers in the southern hemisphere, including China and Venezuela. These will establish exchange programmes to attract outside expertise and nurture young African talent. At the AU 8^th Annual Summit in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia next January, member countries will also discuss the revival of science and technology on the continent.

South Africans are not alone in our excitement of this pan-African development. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, another country recovering from a tragic and violent past, feels so strongly about the potential of science to transform society that he has taken over the science and technology portfolio in his government. At the meeting of the Royal Society in London last Monday, President Kagame was referring to the upcoming African Union Summit when he urged fellow African leaders to move beyond making broad statements of support for science and technology as tools for development. He wants to see African countries support concrete plans for putting such commitments into effect.

Widening participation alone is not enough; we need to implement our decisions! The website of the Science and Development Network has space for African scientists, and scientists who work in Africa, to contribute to the debate among policymakers ahead of the African Union summit. This is indeed a splendid way of using technology to bring the people of this continent together! Such alliances are very exciting for those of us who work in the field of science policy.

But science policy is not typically the kind of topic that puts stars in the eyes of young children, so I am not going to linger on it. We are expecting a lot of young people to visit INSITE this year because it is taking place at a time when our learners are on a one-week-long holiday before the final term of the school year gets underway

INSITE is really about nurturing this next generation. I hope the young people who visit INSITE will remember that much depends on them. I hope they remember that education is the best way to honour the sacrifices of our ancestors, who were barred from having these opportunities, and that science is an ideal career for contributing to the common good.

On this note, may I take this opportunity to inform you that South African scientists are doing ground-breaking work into understanding the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. Our scientists are currently among the key drivers of several pan-African third-phase clinical trials on microbicides that are intended to offer considerable protection against sexually transmitted diseases and the HIV virus.

Science has made remarkable progress in developing medicines and treatments to reduce the life-threatening effects of HIV infection to the level of chronic diseases. Unfortunately, there is, as yet, no cure. Hence self protection and that of loved ones has become an individual responsibility.

Adult South Africans are very aware of their recently divided past. We were divided by apartheid; we do not want another type of segregation - this time a line dividing scientists from the rest of society. If our fellow citizens do not understand science, or are frightened of science, we must speak to them in ways that they understand. During the liberation struggle, South Africans learnt to negotiate against enormous odds. If we could negotiate across that kind of divide, I think scientists can learn to debate and negotiate with those who reject the evidence of science.

We have to think of this in Darwinian terms; if scientists do not communicate with the broader society, that space will be colonised by others such as pseudo-scientists or anti-scientists. International partnerships will achieve very little if local partnerships between scientists and society are weak or non-existent.

If we had the time, I would like to take you to the Sterk Fontein Caves, just outside Johannesburg, now a World Heritage site, to see our beautiful new palaeo-anthropology centre, and follow the astonishing story of how these remarkable and very often ridiculous animals called human beings became masters of this world. How did our common ancestors do it? Through the development of new technology - harnessing fire! You see, from the very beginning, we have been scientists. Science is one attribute that makes us different from other animals. Technology is the common thread between a cave man`s fire and a corporate man`s cellphone. And what do we use cellphones for? Communicate, and forge alliances!

We see INSITE 2006 as much more than a display of products and technologies, personalities and intellectual stick-fighting. It is a vibrant platform for forming and strengthening partnerships, for sharing and communicating about science and technology. Your presence in this very room is testimony to this reality.

May this event live up to all your expectations! Enjoy your work over the remaining three days, because science is not just important; it is also fun. Plans are underway to host another INSITE in two years` time, and I hope to see you all again then, with new alliances, new technologies, and new stories to tell.

Siyabonga. Ke a leboga. Dankie. Thank you.