Department of Science and Technology on its role and responsibility in implementing the Indigenous Knowledge Systems policy

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the meeting.  He said indigenous knowledge was very important because it contributed to the economy.  If ancestry was traced hundreds of years back, it showed that people survived without conventional medicine or science as it was now recognised.

Briefing by Department of Science and Technology (DST) on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)

Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde, Deputy Director-General: Research Development and Support, DST, said Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) was a complex issue, but a very important area for the Department to manage.  It was important for the management of IKS that the value to the country be extracted through contributions to different knowledge systems and medicine. It was also important to counter ignorance with knowledge, while it was equally important to not equate ignorance with indigenous knowledge.

Dr Yohah Seleti, Chief Director: IKS, DST, said the purpose of the IKS policy was to stimulate and strengthen the contribution of IKS to social and economic development in the country.  It was embedded in the South African Constitution, the Science and Technology White Paper (1996), the National Research and Development Strategy (NRDS) of 2002 and the Ten-Year Innovation Plan (2008). The policy drivers were the affirmation of African cultural values in the face of globalisation and the development of services provided by traditional healers, the contribution of indigenous knowledge to the economy, and interfacing with other knowledge systems.  The establishment of the National Indigenous Knowledge Systems Office (NIKSO) in 2006 provided for the development and implementation of infrastructure for programmes as it related to priorities.  It further established mechanisms for the nature and extent of relationship between the holders of indigenous knowledge and the research community and leveraged funding to IKS laboratories and centres, practitioners/holders for the purposes of research and development.

Dr Seleti illustrated NIKSO’s three tier organisational structure and said that development of legislation for the protection, promotion, development and management of IKS was very important.  Institutional collaboration was advocated to consolidate collaborative research and to initiate agreements with strategic partners and stakeholders locally, regionally and internationally.  The advocacy strategy aimed to disseminate information was targeted at enhancing the public’s knowledge and understanding of the importance of South Africa’s indigenous knowledge.  South Africa's current legislation on intellectual property (IP) rights could not accommodate and adequately protect indigenous knowledge.  There appeared to be disagreement on how best to protect indigenous knowledge, which was either using the existing IP rights system or developing a sui generis system of IP rights.  The NIKSO and the legal unit of DST formed a task team that drove the drafting of the Bill in the form of a sui generis legislation.  Submission to the Minister for approval for consultation with government departments was in process. 

Some of the human capital instruments under IKS included the Research Grant under the National Research Fund (NRF) which drove competitive research in priority areas and Centres of Excellence at the Universities of KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Venda, and North West and at UNISA.  

Dr Seleti illustrated how knowledge was managed and the National Recordal System was established to record, document, preserve and to protect indigenous knowledge. This system linked recorded indigenous knowledge and collected grassroots community experiences in local languages. It constituted an IKS cyber infrastructure that provided authentic, legal and secured IKS information and was supported by the National Indigenous Knowledge Management System (NIKMAS). The NRS was officially implemented in six provinces and the benefits included economic value, improved quality of life and enhanced community identity.

A pharmacopoeia was established to serve as a form of protection against misappropriation and exploitation of indigenous knowledge as it related to genetic resources and art. It granted access to 793 open access journals, 185 South African theses, 32 digitised books, 57 updated monographs and 1 conference paper.  Further digitisation of priority plant species, development of monographs for selected plant material was prioritised for 2014/15 and beyond.  The norms and standards that would professionalise the traditional healing profession was a major undertaking, but great strides had been made toward this goal.

Dr Seleti highlighted the IKS-based technology innovation key achievements for 2008-2014 and African traditional medicines, cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals were flagships of the programme.  Nestlè and L'Oréal were on board, together with South African companies on research into cosmetics to address hair loss, wrinkles and UV protection as well as nutrition.  Moringa products were already distributed to children in Cofimvaba and Moringa plants were developed in Atteridgeville and in Limpopo to create a proper value chain of a nutritional product.  Resurrection tea had gone through all the tests and it was a better tasting tea than Rooibos. The IKS budget to drive all these initiatives and research was not enough and the Committee’s assistance in an adjustment to allocations was needed.

Dr Auf der Heyde said the Department would bring a sample of Resurrection tea for the Committee to taste at the next meeting.

Discussion
The Chairperson said South Africa was disadvantaged because not only was the country’s indigenous knowledge disregarded for a long time; it was also replaced by non-African knowledge systems.  The problem had always been how to breach the gap between rich and poor, especially rural communities.  This was ironic since the rural communities often possessed the most indigenous knowledge but struggled financially and struggled with employability. 

The Chairperson asked how the pharmacopoeia could be accessed.  Indigenous knowledge was open to abuse, because those only wanting to make money made outrageous claims like the ability to cure HIV/AIDS. Confusion also arose because some referred to themselves as traditional healers while others called themselves faith healers. The presentation was eye opening. He asked what connection the Department had with the Traditional Health Practitioners Bill.  The pharmacopoeia was in digital form and it was possible that hard copies would be produced to make it accessible to others.

Dr Seleti said there was participation as a smaller office in the initial development of the Traditional Health Practitioner’s Bill, but the interim council that had been appointed took very long in unpacking the Bill and there were areas of work that were not clearly articulated.  The Bill was attempting to empower traditional healers so they could issue certificates that were accepted.  The Bill was quiet on their qualifications and how it related to the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and how they could be professionally developed.  The Department saw that gap and it was part of the DTS’ competency to address the issue.

Mr C Mathale (ANC) said he was happy with the innovations in IKS and said the budget of R10 million was clearly not enough.  He feared however, that if a project was not properly resourced, it may never be realised.  In his village, during the rainy season, there was a type of spinach or vegetable, called thiyeke in abundance and he asked if this vegetable could not be expanded, same as the teas in Zeerust.

Dr Auf der Heyde agreed with the Members’ comments about the budget issues - the IKS needed more money and so did the Department. Every year the Department spent in excess of 99% of its budget. Currently, to increase funding for IKS, funds were moved from programmes. The Department had been increasing the budget for IKS within the existing budget constraints and there had also been realignment within the Department to support more flexible budget allocations.

Dr Hlupheka Chabalala, Director: IKS, DST, said research done in nutraceuticals was on thiyeke, lerutu and dinawa.  There were eight products that were ready for commercialisation and these products were the products Nestlè was interested in.  The health and protein drinks already given to children in Cofimvaba were one of these products.  Land had been identified in areas to start producing quality products en masse.

The Chairperson said the importance of integrating finance and humanity was very important.  In the past, many communities got most of their nutrition from produce from the soil of the area and big retailers would not have survived in those areas. The nutritional value of imifino, a type of wild spinach, was determined to be greater than spinach and cabbage. There needed to be balance so that people could access good and affordable nutrients, while those who sold more expensive produce did not suffer financially.

Dr A Lotriet (DA) suggested that the Committee could benefit from a workshop to familiarise itself with the different areas of IKS.  She asked if there would be new taxonomy on how indigenous knowledge would be classified and if this taxonomy was available.  Job creation was a crucial issue and she asked to what extent the Department was engaged with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Small Business Development to address employability concerns.  She asked if Dr Selebi proposed a sui generis legislation during the public hearings on the Intellectual Property Amendment Bill, because it seemed the Department supported the Bill during the hearings, but later changed its position.

Dr Seleti said the taxonomy was embedded in the system and the framework was available for anyone wanting to make input on the NRS. There was a comprehensive taxonomy and eventually it could be published as a guide, but at the moment it was used to make the system work.  The Department had presented an argument in front of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry for sui generis legislation and had not changed its position on that decision.  Some of the comments and suggestions submitted by the Department were integrated into the Bill, but it did not make the Bill a sui generis one.

Dr Auf der Heyde said the Department had extensive links with the DTI.

Mr M Kekana (ANC) said a budget allocation of R1.5 million for Communication and Advocacy was not enough.  The bursaries should be advertised so that those interested in science, and in particular IKS, could apply.  He asked how many provincial offices there were and in what areas.  He said that Professor Nqaleni of the University of KZN had vacated his office and a process to find a suitable replacement was under way. He asked how far the process was.  He asked when the Department was looking to fill this post, what was happening with the research programme at the University of KZN and what mechanisms could be put in place to ensure research and development was not disrupted.  He asked who was taking care of the students and how many students there were.

Dr Auf der Heyde said bursaries were advertised and they were funded mainly through the NRF. The Foundation awarded bursaries either through a call for application for bursaries where the NRF awarded the bursaries by considering the demographic guidelines provided by the Department and the quality of the applicant. It could also be rewarded through a research grant that would be given to a professor running a research programme. The professor then looked for students to award the bursary to. Since the bursary was attached to a supervisor, it could not be open to all universities. The Department did not have provincial offices, as there was no provincial competency in terms of legislation and the Constitution. The IKS, located within the DST, also did not have provincial competencies but it had established IKS documentation centres – these were physical locations where the management information system was housed and managed. The information and knowledge from local communities was brought into these centres and captured on the IT systems and in a way these centres were the provincial footprints that NIKSO had. The need to strengthen NIKSO had been recognised by the Department, but that did not imply establishing regional offices.  To strengthen NIKSO this had to be done at the core of the office and by strengthening partnerships that the office had with communities, community based organisations and other government departments.

Dr Seleti said the resignation of Professor Nqaleni did present a problem, because the field did not have too many specialised professionals. During the last round of headhunting, someone was appointed and would be supervising the programme with a research focus on diabetes. The work had not stopped and the animal testing was the next step. The DST-NRF-IKS centre’s hub was based at the University of KZN and the university adopted the IKS policy and it was one of the university’s priority areas.

Ms N Louw (EFF) said although she was new to the Committee, she came from a food science background.  The innovations were exciting, but the budget concerns needed to be addressed. 

The Chairperson said there was a law that stated that Members of Parliament had the right to recommend an increase of the budget in a particular directorate.  Most areas in the Department were underfunded, because it was often misunderstood what the Department did.  He thanked everyone for their input and the meeting was adjourned.