Barry Wheeler from the Office of the Auditor-General presents Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor and Dr Phil Mjwara
From coveted international prizes to scooping prestigious local accolades, the department of science and technology (DST) is a public service entity on the move.
Led by Minister Naledi Pandor, the department has over the years distinguished itself as being dedicated to fulfilling its mandate with a high level of professionalism. The DST is committed to ensuring that it contributes to the government’s main priority of ensuring a better life for all the country’s people through science, technology and innovation.
Through the use of knowledge, the DST and its employees are building a productive knowledge economy that will ensure South Africa unlocks its potential for economic growth and remains competitive at a global level.
While the department can pat itself on the back for a job well done, the accolades it has received locally and abroad recognise the good work put in by its employees.
“I sometimes pinch myself when I compare the work that this department does with other departments, and as I tend to be a modest person, my own reflection is that maybe we underplay the quality of the work that we do,” said the DST director-general Dr Phil Mjwara during a recent internal staff event.
Last year, the DST received an award for best functioning national department at the Batho Pele Excellence Awards. In addition, the Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) results consider the DST as the best department at both provincial and national levels.
MPAT is one of government’s initiatives to improve the performance and service delivery of national and provincial departments. The methodology has been informed by similar management performance assessments carried out in other countries such as Russia, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Kenya, Turkey and India.
The department also received an award for the best performing department from the department of public service and administration. In 2015 the DST was also among the departments that received a clean audit.
Also in 2015, the DST scooped two Universum Most Attractive Employer Awards. Universum is an employer-branding organisation that provides market insights and communication solutions to help employers attract, recruit and retain professional talent.
The department handed over several mobile computer laboratories to schools in South Africa. This DST-led initative benefits thousands of learners attending schools in rural areas and continues to support the learning of mathematics and science.
Mjwara also praised the department’s deputy director general Mmboneni Moufhe and his team for the progress made in the hydrogen and fuel cell technology sector with the launch of a prototype hydrogen fuel cell forklift at Impala Refining Services in Springs.
The deputy director-general for international cooperation and resources Daan du Toit and his team were lauded for hosting a successful Science Forum South Africa. The event has successfully attracted over 3 000 participants from 50 countries across Africa and the world since its launch in 2015.
Dedicated to building a workforce to lead the knowledge economy, the DST’s work to produce more young black PhDs is also yielding results. According to an analysis conducted by the Department’s National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), the number of black PhD students has increased more than that of the white students. This has been attributed to the hard work of Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde, deputy director general for research, development and support, and his team.
Meanwhile, the director general himself has also been honoured with a prestigious award for his significant contribution and support to the development of earth observation and geospatial information in Africa, with the Africa Group on Earth Observation System of Systems (AfriGEOSS) and Group on Earth Observation (GEO) in particular. Last year Mjwara was honored by the African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE).
Earlier this year, Minister Pandor received the prestigious award for science diplomacy by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, in the United States. The Minister was honoured for integrating science in policymaking on the continent.
From garage to market – making grassroots innovation work
Tinkering in the garage is a hobby for many, but for Phumalani Ntloko and Skhumbuzo Ndlovu tinkering in the latter’s garage resulted in the development of a computer numerical control (CNC) machine, which has the ability to build test prototypes.
The young men, both engineering enthusiasts, are keen on inventing things, and for many years sought assistance for the incubation of their work. The pair were interested in developing technologies like an oscilloscope, a device that can test various signals like sound, electricity and light.
“We knocked on several doors, more than 10, including those of financial institutions, but there was just was no help out there. No one was interested because it was obvious that our machine was built in a garage,” said Ntloko.
However, in 2015, they had a breakthrough, after landing on the doorstep of the department of science and technology (DST).
Through its Grassroots Innovation Programme, the DST assisted the pair to secure high-tech computer software and a 3D printer, and financed training for them and their team. Ntloko and Ndlovu dropped the idea of the oscilloscope and opted to develop their CNC machine concept, which had a better chance of economic success.
Last year Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor announced during her budget vote speech that about R2-million would be spent on a pilot to evolve a model that allowed innovators like Ntloko and Ndlovu to leverage social and economic value from their innovations. The need for the pilot was informed by the many young and unemployed people who use local resources to develop promising technologies and solutions outside formal innovation institutions. The initiative has established a database of grassroots innovations to help it identify needs.
Almost a year later Ntloko and Ndlovu sat in the gallery in the National Assembly when Minister Pandor presented this year’s budget. The pair were accompanied by other grassroots innovators like Nkosana Madi, who developed a motorised bicycle, and Melusi Ntuli, who developed a chargeless electric engine. These innovators show that the DST initiative is bearing fruit.
The Grassroots Innovation Programme is aimed at identifying innovators and inventors that do not have a formal education or access to formal facilities. Through this programme individuals are linked to subject experts and advanced facilities where the innovations can be developed towards a commercial model.
The grassroots innovators also receive training in order to assist them to understand their subject matter better and to give them the entrepreneurial skills to help them commercialise and market their inventions.
Formal, structured industry and academic institutions offer access to expertise, facilities and financial resources that make innovation activities comparatively easy. However, as the world changes, even large multinational companies are finding it harder to fund innovation.
By its nature, innovation is not restricted to particular environments. Clever ideas pop up everywhere, and with social media allowing for brainstorming ideas with a wide variety of people, faster and more cost-effective innovation is possible.
The DST is leveraging these trends to support and grow innovation in order to foster the economic development that South Africa desperately needs, and hopes that more grassroots innovators will approach it.
To obtain more information go to http://grassroots.tliu.co.za