Question NW457 to the Minister of Science and Technology
14 March 2016 - NW457
Lotriet, Prof A to ask the Minister of Science and Technology
(a)Whether her (a) office and/or (b) department received a letter from certain company (Greville Wood development); if so, has a formal response indicating her department's position on the proposal been sent to the specified company; if not, (i) why not and (ii) when will the specified response be sent; if so, (aa) on what date was such a response sent and (bb) what are the further relevant details?
Reply:
a) Yes, the Office of the Minister received a letter from MrGreville Wood dated 5 January 2016. The letter requests the Minister to start a debate in government on "developing an engineered rollout plan that poverty cannot treat with contempt that could address unemploymentcountrywide, as the 1984 and 2011 proofs demonstrated”.
b) In addition, Mr Greville Wood sent a letter to the Director-General of the DST requesting financial support for 3 projects. A formal response was sent to MrGreville Wood on 15 December 2015 indicating that the funding support requested does not fall within the mandate and funding priorities of the DST. A formal response was also sent on 3 March 2016 to the letter received by the Minister. In the letter, the Minister highlighted that the DST is playing a role in encouraging the use of innovative building technologies. We do not fund projects such as requested by Mr Woods.
Further relevant details:
bb) In his letter dated 5 January 2016 addressed to the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Wood acknowledged previous DST funding of an innovative building technology proof of concept project. The DST had appointed its entity; the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Built Environment unit to work with MrWood and the project was completed on 31 October 2012. The project close out report was submitted by the CSIR to the DST and based on this report; the CSIR highlighted the need for GWD to secure Agrément SA approval. Agrément SA is responsible for innovative construction product assessment and certification in South Africa.