AN ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, MR MOSIBUDI MANGENA, AT THE OPENING OF THE 37TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COORDINATION CHEMISTRY (ICCC) AT THE CAPE TOWN CONVENTION CENTRE - 13 AUGUST 2006

Chairman of the Organising Committee, Professor Koch;

Professor A P de Silva from Queens College;

Vice Chancellors;

International Delegates;

Representatives from Various Bodies;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen

South Africa is indeed very honoured to host this important and prestigious international conference. May I also add my words of welcome to all the delegates, especially our guests from other countries. I hope those of you who have travelled from far away are well rested and able to enjoy something of Cape Town in between the events of the conference.

Recently a renowned chemist said the following:

Catalysts are the conductors who choreograph the chemical dance that results in the formation of new structures. Just as the influence of catalysts occurs, in a sense, behind the scenes of a chemical reaction, catalysis has been behind three of the last 6 chemistry prizes. Catalysts offer the promise of making chemical transformations far less polluting. We hope that the recognition of our chemistry provides a drive for the development of new green methods for the synthesis of essential chemicals.

And that renowned chemist is with us here today. Welcome Professor Robert Grubbs. It is indeed a pleasure to have you here in South Africa. I found your remarks in that speech very challenging and compelling.

South Africa’s economy was built on agriculture and mining, and to a significant extent, it still depends on these economic activities. But we have one industry that has some distinctiveness and uniqueness based on catalysis; that is the oil-from-coal industry known globally as SASOL.

SASOL is the largest business investor in research and development in South Africa, and is certainly the largest employer of our chemists and chemical engineers. It is widely acknowledged for taking a proactive approach to research. In a way, this makes it a “conductor and choreographer” of much that happens in our system of innovation. Some people have called it the Nokia of South Africa – but my policy analysts tell me that its research budget would have to increase by a factor of 5 for this to be true.

Evidence abound that South Africa has been undergoing a renaissance in science and technology over the last few years. Last year President Mbeki opened the 10m class Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland in the Northern Cape - some two hours drive from here once you have cleared Cape Town’s traffic. This telescope was built by a South African anchored international partnership on the design based on the highly innovative Hobby-telescope in Texas.

This venture in the optical spectrum is likely to be dwarfed by South Africa’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope which may have as many as 4500, 12 to15 metre dishes when it is completed in 2020. Not far from here, in the suburb of Pinelands, a team of some 35 scientists and engineers are developing the prototype 20-dish Karoo Array Telescope that will be used to stimulate the innovation required to make the dream of the SKA a practical reality. In this case South Africa is not borrowing the core technologies. Our technology is the reference technology for the current SKA bidding processes.

South Africa sees astronomy as an opportunity for forging cutting edge research and world-class innovation together with our international partners. In the same way, we are mobilising our unique biodiversity to develop research and innovation in the biosciences and biotechnology, with a number of early successes coming from these investments.

In the field of chemistry there is a medium-sized company in Krugersdorp, near Johannesburg, which is a global exporter of zirconium chemicals. This would probably be unremarkable if it hadn’t been a project of the government-backed Innovation Fund, which is now supported by, among others, a Swedish venture capital firm. We are making strides in science, technology and innovation, but we cannot suggest that we have achieved our objectives yet.

In the intersection between “molecules” and the “world of nanostructures”, we do not have an established track record of academic endeavour or significant industrial capabilities other than those that existed before the world took on a more integrated approach to a nano-future. We have only recently completed the national nanotechnology strategy, and have begun to invest in the core infrastructure and equipment that will underpin better science and targeted research areas in this field.

In Mowbray, not too far from here, we are establishing the High Performance Computing Centre, which will house the next generation of grid computing and supercomputers for our South African scientific community. We already have established competencies in this domain, but until now, our scientists have had to depend on the goodwill of colleagues in Europe and the United States. The project was given strong impetus by, among others, Kevin Naidoo, a computational chemist from the University of Cape Town. The group there works on liquid systems such as oligosaccharides in water – which sounds a little like “sugar water” to some of us non-specialists!

Given the fact that our daily lives revolve around the use of chemical products from the basic needs of life like water (H2O), to the most sophisticated gadgets or medicines, it is critical that we provide the necessary toolkits for our research community to work at the forefront of modern research.

This underpins our investment strategy. But as much as we focus on the physical universe, beyond the earth, we must pay attention to the hidden dimensions and unique character of our existence as biological beings. It is not enough to call this century the century of biology and then sit back. The revolution in biology is proving to be just as demanding as that of physics in the last century.

Chemistry retains its enigmatic relationship with both physics and the biosciences. Although DNA has been called the molecule of life, life giving molecules are more often found in the generations of pharmaceuticals developed in laboratories across the world. The gains in this regard have been of inestimable value to both the developed and developing world. And yet, for all this success, we still face enormous challenges in delivering basic public health support to the majority of the inhabitants of the planet.

We are seeing, for the first time in five generations, a reduction in public literacy in relation to the sciences, but public scepticism and public fears are increasing. This change in public perceptions is influencing the career choices of young people. Undergraduate enrolments are continuing to decline in many science fields. Somehow the special story of chemistry in our lives is not being told. The interesting and challenging linkages between chemistry and other fields of science such as nanotechnology, bio-technology, computing and materials engineering should be far more accessible and visible to young people before they “lock-in” on their career choices.

The chemical industry contributes 5% to South Africa’s GDP – about the same as agriculture, and less than half that of ICT. South Africa pays more for chemical-based imports than it exports. This is because the exports are principally low unit value commodity chemicals, whereas imports are higher value, fine and speciality chemicals. This reality should help focus our efforts to a higher degree. In addition, the burden of disease, including tuberculosis, malaria, cancer and HIV and AIDS, should also be a key focus of our investment and output in research and innovation.

Professor Grubbs indicated that chemistry must seek a future that is “greener”. This is one of the key challenges we face. In energy terms, this includes the journey from carbon-to-hydrogen, which is one of the key frontiers we have prioritised. And is still a challenge for high temperature processes to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – one of the many frontiers seeking practical and useful solutions – the heart of good chemistry.

I hope that your conference will constitute a high point for you in the complex “choreography” of the global chemical community. I hope you absorb some African rhythms, and feel free to take some steps not envisaged before, in new partnerships that will allow a new generation of scientists to build on your work. Enjoy the exercise!

I thank you.