Chairperson, if hon Koos van der Merwe had patented his name many years ago he could have been enjoying lot of royalties today.
This debate takes place during the very important month of August, the month of women. Let me also join in the salutations of those heroic struggles of our mothers and sisters for gender equality in society and for the total emancipation of women around the globe.
On Friday, 8 August 2008, we attended a very impressive award ceremony organised by the Department of Science and Technology and its partners in recognition of the achievements of Women in Science. We congratulate all women scientists and those who won some awards and prizes during that time. Thanks go to hon Minister Mosibudi Mangena for his leadership in this process all the time.
Like with many other important pieces of legislation enacted through this Parliament, we conducted public hearings at the end of July 2008 relating to Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Bill. This time we conducted joint public hearings with our colleagues in the NCOP and wish to thank them for their co-operation and leadership in this matter.
Our appreciation also goes to all organisations, institutions, individuals and especially the Department of Science and Technology for their support and dedication. They severally and collectively helped us to improve the Bill to be what it is today. I want to thank Dr Mjwara, Dr Mehlomakhulu, and Mr Sibanda for their leadership in this regard.
In the Bill itself, intellectual property is defined as:
... any creation of the mind that is capable of being protected by law from use by any other person, whether in terms of South African law or foreign law, and includes any rights in such creation, but excludes copyrighted works such as thesis, dissertation, article, handbook, or any other work, in the ordinary course of business, is associated with conventional academic work.
This is the most important piece of legislation in the evolution of our knowledge economy in our country, like you will recall, Comrade Nel. At first sight this Bill may seem to be of a very technical nature, however, patents arising from these processes are used successfully by the developed world for the advancement of their knowledge economies.
Over the years, patents have been powerful economic weapons in the arsenal of developed countries against each other, and particularly in their scramble to take control of developing countries' economies. Members will remember our fight as a country against the pharmaceutical companies in our quest to manufacture generic drugs for our people. The Germans have long appropriated pebble bed modular reactor technology. Using that technology as a country does require some intellectual property transactions with the Germans. Earlier on, there was a statement that suggested that South Africa is involved in discussions with the Intellectual Property Commission in the United States to try to get some licences in this regard.
Now, in our hand-over report we have also decided that, particularly on this matter of PBMR with regard to the next Parliament, we will recommend that the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology, the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy, and the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises must engage in serious oversight work related to this matter.
You can't, hon members, use the label of "Champagne" on any sparkling wines in South Africa because this is patented as a geographical indicator by the French. We also have to defend our geographic indicators, like Mr Blanch said, such as "Rooibos" tea. Hoodia, for instance, is patented - and I won't have to explain what it is because members know the properties of Hoodia - but we still have to check whether the San and the Namqua people benefit from the commercialisation of this indigenous knowledge. The same applies to the African potato.
During the public hearings, participants like Professor Julian Kinderlerer, Professor of Intellectual Property at the University of Cape Town, warned us against undermining the delicate balance between the imperatives of research work and that of commercial interest. He cited the example of Jonas Salk who invented the polio vaccine and refused to patent it, preferring that polio be eradicated largely. Prof Kinderlever went on to say that the primary point of research is to give information to the world. For example, Watson and Crick discover the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which was the most important discovery, from which all modern biotechnology and generics, including new designer drugs, have followed. The evolution of this research work and the ensuring debate culminated in a very important agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States of America in 2000. This clock is going very fast!
I just want to say that the Bayh-Dole Act passed in 1980 was the basis for this Act, and so on. But be warned about something here! Some years ago Comrade Khumalo and I visited Hong Kong, invited by the International Telecommunication Union to look into an exhibition on the information and communication technology sector in particular. I must confess that I came back with mixed feelings not only about impressive technology advancement in the information and communication technology sector, but also disappointed about the revelation that as a country we still have a long way to go. We must guard against our economy becoming a glorified spaza shop for some international supermarkets whilst we can also secure important benefits from global innovation. I wanted to say a lot about our marketing in South Africa and what the red book we were referred to says - Mr Sibanda would know what I'm talking about - but the level of patenting here in South Africa is really very low. This may be the reason why at least 50% of patent applications filed in South Africa emanate from abroad.
For South Africa to compete effectively in the knowledge economy, we need to strengthen our education system to respond to the challenges of high- level research and innovation. The ANC supports this Bill and would like to give thanks to all who helped us to make it what it is, including our secretaries. Thank you.