Committee Business: Adoption of Committee minutes

Science and Technology

17 February 2016
Chairperson: Dr B Goqwana (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

Documents handed out
Report minutes on Norwegian visit dated 28 January 2016
Budgetary review report (BRR) minutes dated 21 October 2015
Annual report brief minutes dated 15 October 2015
Annual report brief minutes dated 09 August 2015
South African Council for Natural scientific professions (SACNASP) briefing minutes dated 09 September 2015
Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) brief minutes dated 19 August 2015
Limpopo visit report minutes dated 12 August 2015
DST 1st Quarter Expenditure Brief minutes dated 05 August 2015
Limpopo Visit Report dated 02 February 2016 

The Committee met briefly to consider and adopt 8 outstanding minutes. 

Meeting report

for suggestions on how the project in Limpopo could connect with the private business sector, so that it could sustain itself, as the Department of Science and Technology (DST) had limited funding and could not afford to fund the project. He highlighted the lack of contribution from the private business sector coming in to help the project. He advised members about the mosquito problem in Limpopo where they spread diseases and felt that a mosquito repellent business would benefit from funding the project. He asked members to come back to discussion and adoption of the report after the adoption of all outstanding minutes.

Committee Minutes dated 28 January 2016

The Chairperson then moved on to brief members on all the outstanding minutes for adoption. The first set of minutes was based on the joint committee meeting, held with the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and the engagement with the Norwegian parliamentary delegation.

The minutes were moved with no changes by Mr C Mothale (ANC) and seconded by Mr M Kekana (ANC).

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 21 October 2015

The Chairperson tabled second minutes for consideration. This related to the adoption of the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).

The minutes were moved with no changes by Ms L Maseko (ANC) and seconded by Mr Mothale.

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 15 October 2015

The Chairperson then moved on to the third report which was the annual reports of 4 of the entities.

The minutes were moved with no changes by Dr A Lotriet (DA) and seconded by Mr N Khoza (EFF).

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 09 August 2015

The Chairperson presented minutes for consideration.

The minutes were moved with no changes by Mr Maseko and seconded by Dr Lotriet.

The minutes were duly adopted.

Mr N Koornhof (ANC) then arrived late, apologised to all members and was welcomed by the Chairperson.

Committee Minutes dated 09 September 2015

The 5th set of minutes was presented by the Chairperson which was the meeting with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions on its objectives and operations on 09 September 2015.

Ms J Terblance (DA) noted that her apology for non-attendance at the briefing was not noted in the minutes.

This was noted by the Committee Secretary, who said she would make the amendment to the apologies in the final copy of the minutes.

The minutes were moved with one addition of a missing apology by Dr Lotriet and seconded by Ms Maseko.

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 19 August 2015

The Chairperson tabled the minutes of 19 August 2015, which dealt with a briefing by the Department on Indigenous Knowledge Systems legislation.

The minutes were moved with no changes by Ms Maseko and seconded by Mr M Paulsen (EFF).

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 05 August 2015

The Chairperson tabled the document, which dealt with the Department's first quarter performance for 2015/16.

The minutes were moved with no changes by Mr Paulsen and seconded by Ms Maseko.

The minutes were duly adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 12 August 2015 (continued..)

The Chairperson instructed Members to go back to the Limpopo report as he strongly felt that the issue of limited funding needed discussion and suggestions. He referred to page four and said that he disagreed with the following statement: “ Although the Committee was generally satisfied with the project's results, the main concern was the limited amounts of funds available, for sustainability of the project”. In his view, this point should be deleted from the minutes.

Mr Paulsen disagreed with the Chairperson's concern. He suggested that other government departments need to come on board as they benefitted from the project's work without spending any money or time on the project.

Ms Maseko agreed with Mr Paulsen ,as the project of its kind should  be the core concern of the DST and that other departments such as Agriculture and Trade and Industry need to put in work from their side as well. She suggested that DST should then indicate where these departments could have relevant input into the project.

The Committee Secretary replied that DST did not have the means to run the project alone and it should urgently link it with other government department projects.

The Chairperson responded that if the Committee wants DST to compete globally then sufficient funding needed to be the main priority in all projects. DST needed to do more research projects on rural scientific development, in order for funding to flow in.

Dr Lotriet said that research should connect business and DST funding and felt that the latter had not been active in this regard. She suggested that when starting research projects, DST needed to emphasise how science could be been taken to the rural areas. This strategy would encourage private businesses to fund the project.

Ms Maseko suggested that the point should be removed.

Ms Lotriet proposed that instead of removal, the sentence should be rephrased.

The Chairperson replied that after the discussion, he did not see any problem with the sentence and it should be retained as is.

Thereafter, the minutes were moved by Ms Maseko and seconded by Mr Kekana.

The minutes were duly adopted.

The meeting was then adjourned.

 

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