National Advisory Council on Innovation & SA Council for Natural Scientific Professions: briefing on Annual Reports
Science and Technology
24 October 2006
Meeting Summary
A summary of this committee meeting is not yet available.
Meeting report
SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
24 October 2004
NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL ON INNOVATION & SA COUNCIL FOR NATURAL SCIENTIFIC
PROFESSIONS: BRIEFING ON ANNUAL REPORTS
Chairperson: Mr M
Ngcobo (ANC)
Documents handed out:
Presentation
and Annual report for 2005/06 by the South African Council for Natural and
Scientific Professions
South African Council for Natural and Scientific Professions Annual Report
(available later at www.sarnap.org.za)
Presentation and
Annual report for 2005/06 by the National Advisory Council on innovation (NACI)
National Advisory Council on innovation (NACI) (available later at www.naci.org.za)
SUMMARY
The National Advisory Council on Innovation presented its 2005/06 annual
report to the Committee and briefed the Committee on the Council’s conception,
its functions and objectives. Its statutory mandate was to advise the Minister
of Science and Technology on matters pertaining to science, technology and
innovation. It was charged with translation of scientific facts into national
scientific policy. Development and maintenance of human resources for
innovation also fell under its mandate. In answer to a question why there was
no financial report, the Council clarified that it handled no finances as this
fell under the Department. The Department undertook to forward full financial
statements to the Committee. Several questions were asked about the scope and
extent of the Council’s duties, and the Committee felt that it should be more
involved in the appointment of the Council. Members queried the priorities, the
outreach, whether the Minister implemented the recommendations and how the
small number of councilors managed to function. It was agreed that the Ministry
of Education should also become involved.
The South African Council for Natural
Scientific Professions briefed the Committee on its role, which was to protect
the community against incompetent practitioners, to gain international
recognition and to increase professionalism and competence amongst natural
scientists. It advised higher education institutions on training of natural
scientists and collaborated on quality control and accreditation of programmes.
It was in a stable financial position and had achieved a surplus in the last
year. Registration was now mandatory. The number of female scientists
registered was at 17%. Challenges included ensuring greater participation by
females. Questions by Members included the recruitment time frames and process,
the importance of communication on registration and the hiring of
non-registered scientists.
The Committee adopted the minutes of meetings between 12 September and 17 October,
and discussed correspondence received.
MINUTES
The Chairperson welcomed Professor Calie Pistorius to his first meeting
with the Committee. In outlining the procedure, he stressed that each presenter
should inform Parliament how far the organisations had achieved the strategic
plans outlined at the beginning of the year, and how it had spent public funds.
Briefing by the National Advisory Council on innovation
Prof Calie Pistorius, Chairperson, National Advisory Council on Innovation
(NACI) outlined NACI’s conception, its functions and objectives. He stressed
that the statutory mandate of NACI was to advise the Minister of Science and
Technology (S&T) on matters pertaining to science, technology and
innovation. Translation of scientific facts into national scientific policy
also fell under NACI’s mandate. He emphasised that objectives were to promote
and achieve national objectives such as the improvement and sustainability of
the quality of life in South Africa. It must also attend to the development of
human resources for S&T in order to build the economy and strengthen the
country’s competitiveness in the international sphere. Since there was a
shortage of people with technical skills, the development and maintenance of
human resources for innovation through selective support for education,
training and research and development, both in the higher education sector and
at science and private institutions, was of highest priority to the Council.
NACI briefed the Committee on its governance, stating that the Council met four
times a year and the executive met ten times a year, with the sub committee
meeting as necessary. The expenditures were controlled through the Department
of Science and Technology.
Discussion
The Chairperson pointed that there was no financial report given during the
presentation and asked if it was available, so the Committee could ascertain
how public funds had been spent.
Prof Pistorius pointed out that NACI did not handle finances and that DST did
the finances for them.
Mr T van der Walt, Department of Science and Technology (DST) stated that the
financial position was sound, and NACI had showed a growth of 8.2% for the past
financial year. It had also seen an increase in the number of tenders awarded
for the year.
Mr M Bhengu (IFP) requested that a complete financial report that
included the breakdown of the finances be submitted to the Committee.
Mr Van Der Walt confirmed that a report would be sent to the Committee.
Mr J Blanche (DA) commented that the font size made it difficult to read the
report and that in future he would prefer a plain presentation that was more
simple and easy to read. He expressed his concern that NACI gave advice to the
Government but not to the Committee, and felt that NACI should include the Committee
in its consultations.
Prof Pistorius replied that NACI’s function was of an advisory nature to
the Minister of Science and Technology and not any other entity.
Mr Blanche expressed his concern on the continuing loss of skills in South
Africa since this meant loss of revenue and economy. He wanted to know whether
there was success in curbing the loss.
Mr A Ainslie (ANC) commented that he had liked the report. He asked whether
there was a system of indicators that showed whether the Minister implemented
NACI’s recommendations.
Prof Pistorius replied that it was not within NACI’s job description. NACI was
intended to be interpreters and not collectors of data.
Mr Ainslie further expressed his concern that there were only 22 members of the
Council, and wondered how they accomplished their tasks. He asked whether any
of the five groups dealt with poverty.
Prof Pistorius responded that although NACI had a lot of objectives to
tackle, it did not tackle all of them at once within the year. Some were addressed
on request by the Minister. Poverty had not yet been addressed. NACI mostly
concentrated on the gender equality side of social development objectives. He
promised to put the poverty issue in the next financial year planning meeting.
Mr Ainslie was disappointed that the Committee had no participation in the
appointment of the NACI council.
The Chairperson agreed and added that the Committee found this to be a
strange arrangement.
Prof Pistorius answered that NACI was exclusive to the Minister and as such, it
was the Minister who had a right to choose his own advisers. Furthermore he
suggested that Parliament consider having another body to advise it on science
and technology matters.
Mr S Nxumalo (ANC) enquired how far NACI extended its outreach. Looking into
his constituency, there was a discrepancy in the pass rate between rural
schools and the “old model C” schools.
Prof Pistorius responded that he will look into this but the Committee
needed to keep in mind that NACI dealt with the construction of policies and
advice, not the implementation of those policies.
Mr Mohamed questioned what had actually been
done regarding promotion of mathematics, since his attempts to acquire the
Mathematics paper from the Minister of Education had been met with silence.
Prof Pistorius emphasized that NACI were not executors; their sole task
was to give advice to the Ministers. This problem should be taken up with the
Minister of Education.
Mr Mohamed commented that the closing down of some national nuclear
regulator sites had resulted in the loss of five to six thousand skilled
people. Through the Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (ASGISA) they were
trying to win those people back but considered that many would not return.
The Chairperson wanted to know what advice NACI gave the Minister
regarding social dimensions innovations and the National System of Innovation.
On his recent trip to Japan, he learned that in order to tackle the issue of
S&T, the country should be divided into, and dealt with various sections,
one at a time. This would enable a region to see how to improve itself by
developing regional skills of innovation (RSI). He further suggested that South
Africa needed to look into the construction of an innovation hub, where all
systems in industry interacted with each other, similar to the Singapore
models.
The Chairperson wondered whether NACI was not missing its objective when it
said it was the responsibility of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills
(JIPSA) to focus on shortage of skills. As far as he knew, JIPSA was a
political entity and NACI a technical entity, as they give advice on technical
issues. He suggested that NACI look into having
a sub group that dealt with development of scarce skills and looked at new ways
for their implementation. For example, using the model of India, NACI could
start developing children at a much younger age, from primary school.
When the Chairperson had spoken to the current Director General of NACI, they
had discussed the Dinaledi projects. They agreed that a strategy needed to be
formulated to teach these students, both in the city centres and also in rural
areas, the importance of science. In many countries in the world the issue of science
and technology was interlinked with the Department of Education in fostering
youth participation, and he suggested that South Africa must also look into
that.
Prof Pistorius agreed that to encourage youth participation the Department of
Education must be involved more actively and he would make a recommendation to
the Minister of Science and Technology.
The Chairperson asked for clarification
regarding the GLOBELICS project, what it involved and what value it brought to
the country.
Prof Pistorius replied that this resulted from a conference on Science and
Technology innovations that was held in August 2005 at the Tshwane University
of Technology.
Briefing by the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions
Prof Pieter Marais, President of the South African Council for Natural
Scientific Professions, (SACNASP) outlined the objectives of SACNASP. It aimed
to protect the community against incompetent practitioners, to gain
international recognition and to increase professionalism and competence
amongst natural scientists. Its role in the higher education sector, in
accordance with the Natural Scientific Professions
Act 27 of 2003, was to advise institutions regarding the training of
natural scientists and to collaborate with Higher Education Quality Control
(HEQC) in regard to accreditation of educational programmes at universities.
SACNASP’s financial situation had improved substantially over the last two
years, mainly due to the increase in number of registrations. The annual fee
was held to a 6% increase. It had achieved a surplus of 16.8% in this current
financial year.
The Council consisted of four full time staff members and currently one
position was vacant. There was ignorance regarding the necessity for scientists
to register in the country and this issue must be addressed immediately. The
registration was no longer voluntary, but mandatory. The first accreditation
visits to the universities would take place within the next two years. The
gender distribution of those who were registering showed 17% of female
scientists registered, with a greater output expected from the universities.
Discussion
The Chairperson commented that there was lack of communication between the
Council and the profession and that the necessity and importance of
registration must clearly be communicated.
Mr Bhengu queried whether the Council had developed time frames for
recruiting females and black scientists.
Prof Marais replied that SACNASP had not set time frames or constructed a
strategy to increase the numbers but they would look into doing that.
Prof Mohamed commented that he found it difficult to see the colours on the
slides and suggested that it would be preferable in future to use number codes
in future presentations.
Mr Marais responded that he would take the suggestion into account
Mr Nxumalo asked whether it was compulsory for scientists to obtain their
qualifications before registering.
Prof Marais said that it was necessary for them to have graduated first before
registering.
The Chairperson suggested that in order for the Council to obtain statistics on
the graduates, it must consult with the tertiary institutions to obtain their
lists of candidates. He also suggested an awareness campaign for Council
members to speak to students and lecturers to teach them the importance of
registering with the Council.
The Chairperson questioned what the Council’s response was to companies that
hired unregistered scientists.
Mr Marais responded that these companies generally had one or more scientists
who have registered. The Act stipulated that if a non-registered scientist was
employed, he or she must practise under the supervision of a registered
scientist. Many companies used this method.
Committee business
The minutes of the following meetings were adopted:
12 September, 19 September, 10 October 2006, 11 October and 17 October 2006.
In respect of the Minutes of 10 October, there were some grammatical
alterations to the third table on page 2.
The Chairperson announced that the Committee was awaiting feedback from the
Swedish Embassy, since a new committee had just been elected.
He suggested that the Committee plan trips to various provinces to do an
oversight on science and technology in the schools. The Committee should also
plan a meeting with a representative from the Minister’s office to direct this
office how many projects there were in the provinces.
The Chairperson announced that he had received a list of fellowship
advertisements in various strategic plans in science and technology engineering
from the South-South Corporation.
Mr Bhengu requested that the Chair forward the list to members of Committee so
that they could possibly identify people who would be interested.
The meeting was adjourned
Audio
No related
Documents
No related documents
Present
- We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting
Download as PDF
You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.
See detailed instructions for your browser here.