In your report card for Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Ben Ngubane (December 20 2001) you commend the department for milestones in science and technology. You cite the South African Large Telescope (SALT) and the Innovation Fund. A more complete review would also have tracked new initiatives.
Although we achieved many things last year, the significance of our work lies less in the numbers of projects completed than in the impact of these initiatives on society. Some examples of new trends within science and technology over the last year are:
The Cabinet’s approval of the national biotechnology strategy, which provides a coherent approach to the commercialisation of biotechnology, and defines new areas for research and human resource development;
The department’s acceleration of research and development as a means of building the economy;
Monitoring of infrastructure and capacity developments in the information and communication technology sectors.
Moreover, one of our institutions, the National Research Foundation, has done well in increasing the number of black researchers.
In arts and culture we have tried to enhance all South Africans’ access. The National Arts Council is the oldest of the institutions created by the department to facilitate this. Instead of using funding of the arts as a yardstick of the department’s activities in isolation perhaps the relevant question is what role the council as well as the National Film and Video Foundation, among others, are playing in creating equity and access to the arts.
The council’s annual report details the extent of its disbursements to organisations that have never had support before. Gender is becoming increasingly important in determining new programmes within the arts sector. The department also has a comprehensive programme on arts and disability. This year hundreds of disabled artists throughout South Africa participated in an arts and culture focus week.
Arts and Culture do not only define aesthetic objects and enrich the human soul. They are also profoundly beneficial to society intellectually. Last year Parliament also approved the act reestablishing the Africa Institute of South Africa. This institution has an important role to play in defining intellectual scholarship in and about Africa.
Museums can be seen as public spaces and places of learning. This complements our belief that there is a need to create an environment in which critical thought prospers. Andile Xaba, head of communications, Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology