ACCEPTING THE NATIONAL CALL OF THUMA MINA

We should create more jobs and produce more local goods to reduce trade deficit, acting head of NACI Dr Mlungisi Cele says

CONSCIOUS of the challenges facing South Africa, the grinding poverty, the persistent inequality and the stubbornly high unemployment, President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all South Africans to answer the call for national duty to build a better South Africa in honour of our founding father, Nelson Mandela.

Paying tribute to Mandela during his State of the Nation Address to parliament, Ramaphosa said: “We are continuing the long walk he began, to build a society in which all may be free, in which all may be equal before the law and in which all may share in the wealth of our land and have a better life.

“We are building a country where a person’s prospects are determined by their own initiative and hard work, and not by the colour of their skin, place of birth, gender, language or income of their parents.”

Ramaphosa added: “We are one people, committed to work together to find jobs for our youth; to build factories and roads, houses and clinics; to prepare our children for a world of change and progress; to build cities and towns where families may be safe, productive and content.

“We remain a highly unequal society, in which poverty and prosperity are still defined by race and gender.

“We have been given the responsibility to build a new nation, to confront the injustices of the past and the inequalities of the present. We are called upon to do so under difficult conditions.”

The presidential address articulates a clear vision of the kind of South Africa. we should all strive towards.

The National System of Innovation (NSI) or South Africa Science Technology and Innovation (STI) system can lay a hand. Internationally, knowledge, Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and innovation have played critical during recent economic recovery and contributed in addressing societal challenges such as food security, education, health and climate change.

The National Development Plan (NDP) does recognise role and potential contribution of knowledge, ICT and innovation in creating sustainable and inclusive growth, complementing existing enterprises and improving well-being and quality of life.

One hopes the proposed Presidential Economic Advisory Council will further strengthen the centrality of knowledge, ICT and innovation in the new economic policy. There is need for more political will and appreciation of knowledge, ICT and innovation as complimentary rather than competing interests.

Government has made modest investment through the Department of Science and Technology and its Public Entities (such as CSIR, TIA, NRF, HSRC) and as such various capabilities been built or are being built.

Some technologies have successfully been piloted and can be deployed or rolled out to address societal, economic and environmental challenges.

Both government and enterprises need to have confidence and prioritise uptake of locally produced technologies. This could reduce over reliance on imported technologies.

The president identified revival of manufacturing sector as critical to the economy and employment. In this regard, the NSI or SASTI sector have initiatives that can contribute, including pilot plant, for the development of Titanium metal powder; the Flourochemicals Expansion Initiative and Aeroswift Program, which is an example of the next generation of additive manufacturing technologies. It is envisaged that such pilots will lead to new industry development based on novel or promising technologies. The key challenge remains uptake and upscaling.

The president calls on all of us to play our role in making that vision a reality.

As NACI (National Advisory Council on Innovation), we feel that Ramaphosa’s address gives us a renewed mandate to advise the government more effectively on innovation. It is common knowledge that if we are to create the much needed jobs to absorb the new entrants into the job market, we have to use the country’s resources more efficiently and effectively. In plain language, we have to innovate more.

The president spoke passionately and eloquently about the need to revive manufacturing.

Said Ramaphosa: “We are going to address the decline over many years of our manufacturing capacity, which has deeply affected employment and exports. We will seek to re-industrialise on a scale and at a pace that draws millions of job seekers into the economy.

“We are going to promote greater investment in key manufacturing sectors through the strategic use of incentives and other measures. To further stimulate manufacturing, we will forge ahead with the localisation programme, through which products like textile, clothing, furniture, rail rolling stock and water meters are designated for local procurement.”

For too long, we, as a country, have been playing an active role in exporting jobs meant for our people to other countries by importing goods such as textile and clothing which we should be producing to reduce the trade deficit.

Responding to this challenge, the labour movement sought to appeal to our collective sense of patriotism, urging us to effectively boycott cheap goods imported from Asian countries, mainly the People’s Republic of China. This campaign has not been successful, partly because consumers are mainly influenced by price and quality and not by a sense of patriotism in their purchasing behaviour.

In order to translate the vision articulated by the president, as NACI, we have to give considered advice on how to respond to the issue of cheap imports which has essentially decimated jobs in the textile and clothing industry. One of the issues to consider may be to look at innovation.

For instance, we should ask the tough questions about what is it that we can do to reduce the cost of production in order to compete with imports from China and other countries. It may very well be that in some sectors we may not be able to compete on price. If we cannot compete on price, we have to find other sectors which offer us a competitive edge so that we can compete on a global stage.

South Africa is part of BRICS. This partnership opens a huge window of opportunities to big markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China. Local manufacturers should consider the regional and continental markets (Africa) as basis of engaging other BRICS markets.

The knowledge, ICT and innovation sector will offer innovative scientific-based solutions on how to make our manufacturers globally competitive. We will offer advice to the government on which sectors South Africa is likely to be a global player to the benefit of the country’s developmental agenda.

Ramaphosa rightly asserts that “if we are to break the cycle of poverty, we need to educate the children of the poor.”

Resolving historical and contemporary challenges facing education system is critical to knowledge, ICTs and innovation. There continues to persist racially skewed male human resource capability; inefficiencies (including learner dropout, between Grade 1 and Grade 12), academic under preparedness, bias towards academic stream.

All stakeholders should ensure provision of adequate and quality education from early childhood development through basic education, high school to post school.

Learners need to acquire knowledge and learn skills that can enable them to deal with societal challenges and meet demands of fourth industrial revolution. In this regard, the public schooling system needs to embrace fusion of science, technology, mathematics, engineering and arts and introduce learners to subjects such as coding, robotics at an early stage.

Too many of our children still struggle to access quality education. Some experience shortage of books. We should ask ourselves if we, as society, are taking advantage of the fourth industrial revolution. For example, should we not investigate possibilities of giving every learner a tablet that has all prescribed works through the digital platform? As the majority of South Africans have access to smartphones and tablets, that will assist learners to access the digital space, and be taught through e-learning.

It is critical that public schooling system is assisted to increase number and quality of learners (especially black females from poor schools) passing Grade 12 mathematics and physical sciences above 60%; and choosing non-academic streams. We need young people who can think critically and use their knowledge to improve their lives, the lives of their communities and nation.

It is also critical to maintain sufficient balance between university system and TVET College system in terms of numbers of students. This is essentially if we are create type and quality of human capability so desirable to realise President Ramaphosa’s vision. About R57 billion has been allocated to support government free higher education for poor and working class.

We do not need free higher education without education. Financial access must be complimented by epistemological access, institutional commitment to change what is taught and learnt; and student desire to learn, acquire knowledge and complete on time.

The undergraduate percentage SET enrolment has remained stagnant between 2005 (29.4%) and 2015 (29.7%). At the post-graduate level, the proportion of science engineering and technology (SET) enrolment as percentage of total student enrolments has increased between 2005 and 2015. There has been corresponding increase in the number of previously disadvantaged individuals to 79.1% in 2015.

The system will need to improve its efficiency by ensuring that students complete their studies on time. The ratio of SET graduates to that of overall SET enrolments in 2015 was 1:5.

There has been notable progress in the expansion and transformation of research capacity. The percentage of female researchers (full time equivalent) increased from 2001/02 (38.4%) to 2014/15 (44.1%). The proportion of female academic staff with doctoral increased between 2005 (30.4%) and 2014 (39.1%) and the proportion of black (African, Coloured and Indian) female academic staff with doctorates also increased albeit slightly.

While this is positive, the system needs to be encouraged to transform even further. Various options need to be explored including creating virtual academies and deepening partnerships between universities and science councils.

Historically disadvantaged institutions may provide basis for expansion if carefully considered.

Third, the international benchmarking of mobile cellular subscriptions indicates that South Africa is doing well in diffusing ICT access through mobile cellular devices per 100 people.

South Africa is among leading nations, in line with president’s call, we need to exploit this great opportunity. Other initiatives such as M-Lab at Innovation Hub and the SKA and MeerKat could make South Africa leapfrog and become leader in certain areas. A number of young people have graduated with postgraduate degrees and acquired critical skills through these projects.

South Africa can truly become knowledge and innovation hub that can be used to leverage funding and attract best talent across the world. Potentially, new industries can be established as well.

Some may argue that we are opting to give people cake when they have to bread, saying that the option of a tablet may be an “unnecessary” burden to a learner who has no electricity at home and even at school. How are these learners expected to have these tables charged? What about theft?

At NACI, our approach is to look at every problem as an opportunity and to advice the government accordingly. In rural areas where there may not be electricity, there is the sun that shines brightly on the towns and cities as much as it does on villages.

Why are our local people not taking advantage of installing solar panels as a means of powering the local communities?

Where there is a will, there is a way. We pledge to give the scientific support to all those who dream to create a better South Africa.

The president also spoke about changing mining from a sun-set industry to a sun-rise industry. For far too long, our country has been a conveyor belt, shipping off raw commodities to other countries and only imported finished goods as huge prices, thus contributing to increasing our trade deficit.

There is no doubt that if we are serious about creating the jobs that will help reduce the high levels of poverty, we would need to do things differently. We would need to innovate much more and create new industries that are linked to the mines.

But more importantly, NACI is working on a long term strategy to stimulate economic growth. We are developing a vision of where the country should be over the next 10 to 20 years.

In terms of this vision, we will seek to identify key sectors that can play a role in ensuring that we realise our long term vision.

We are a country with immense potential and there is no reason why we cannot deliver a fatal blow to poverty. There is no reason why millions continue to go to bed hungry.

Using Science, Technology and Innovation, we should support our agricultural sector to ensure that we do not just rely on nature and rain to irrigate our agricultural produce.

We have responded to the call. We are ready and willing to be part of the South Africans who are making a new dawn articulated by the president a reality. As NACI, we accept the national call of

Thuma mina.