Chairperson and hon members, it is really difficult to respond when so much has been said. One thing that is clear to me, however, is that the members have really worked hard and prepared themselves for this debate. I am really impressed.
It was difficult to absorb everything that everybody was saying, because these were well-researched contributions to this debate. I think the members in the gallery would have obtained lots of additional information and I am sure members in this House who are not members of the portfolio committee have found this debate enriching and fascinating. So, I want to thank the members from all parties for really making a constructive contribution to a very important debate and for doing their homework really thoroughly. I also want to thank, obviously, all members for the support they have given the Department of Science and Technology and the acknowledgement of the importance to our country of the work that is being done.
Very briefly, firstly, the chairperson of the portfolio committee, the hon Ngcobo, spent some time highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge systems. I want to thank him for that because it is one of the areas that are sometimes neglected. Sometimes, it is underappreciated. It is often regarded as a kind of pseudo-science, but we believe there really is valuable knowledge held by communities and that it needs to be valued, acknowledged, better understood and better researched, so that we can extract maximum value from this knowledge and ensure that local communities benefit from the commercialisation of their knowledge. The starting point, however, is recognising that there are knowledge-holders out there who have important knowledge. Give them due credit and make sure that, however you construct it, some benefit flows to what we regard as local community knowledge-holders.
Secondly, to the hon member Kloppers-Lourens - I do not have a lot of time, I am afraid, so I am going to have to rush through my comments. Your dedication to the work of this portfolio committee is really much appreciated. We do not disagree with some of the comments you made on education, but our approach might be a little bit different. The Minister, Naledi Pandor, is sitting there. She is also the chairperson of the ANC's committee on health and education. The matters that have been raised here are being very, very carefully debated. We agree that there has to be a greater level of accountability and responsibility taken by teachers in our society. The matter of essential service, or not, is a matter that is still being discussed. One thing that we believe is very important is keeping stakeholders on board and engaging with our social partners, including trade unions.
There are a couple of other things. In this debate - and we know there are big challenges in education - we must not neglect to acknowledge the thousands of teachers who really care about their work, who are dedicated and who often work under difficult conditions. [Applause.] Yes, they are really the salt of the earth. However, we must also appeal to teachers who neglect their responsibilities. They are not doing our country a favour, even if they exercise their right to protest as enshrined in the Constitution. Respect and dignity must be maintained at all times. Teachers are meant to be role models in our society. [Applause.] They must rise to that. They must be role models. Parents must be, too. We would like to suggest that parents are probably not taking their responsibilities as seriously as they should. I think it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that parents in our constituencies take their responsibilities more seriously.
Hon Plaatjie, thank you for a well-researched piece of work. A lot of questions will have to be answered afterwards. You touched on earth science systems. Interestingly, South Africa has ideal conditions for doing internationally important astronomy work and ideal conditions for doing work in palaeontology because of our enormously rich fossil finds. So, when it comes to earth sciences, we are, in truth, a natural laboratory.
We have everything in our country that will give the world better answers to some of the fundamental questions, including questions relating to climate change and to what is happening on our planet. So, it is not by coincidence that we chose global change as one of our five priority areas. We have such ideal conditions to do research in this important area of earth science.
In a place called Potsdam, not far from Berlin, there is an institute called the German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Helmholtz Institute for Geosciences. When we visited the institute, they said there was no country in the world that had so much to offer, as a kind of a living laboratory for researchers, as South Africa in the area of earth sciences.
To the hon Smith - where are you anyway, Peter? We are not allowed to call each other by first names, are we? [Laughter.] You are a truly valued member of the portfolio committee. Your intellect and positive contributions are always valued by the members of the portfolio committee. I would agree with most of what you say, except that mathematical literacy is not "a nonsense". I would say that we obviously want our learners to do well in mathematics and science. We need to concentrate on the quality of teaching that happens; the capabilities of our teachers. There are a number of things that we need to do in order to get better results in mathematics and science, but mathematical literacy does have value.
Hon Smith, of course we would like other departments, including Basic Education, to popularise science, but my department does science, so we need to popularise it. Dr Bernie Fanaroff, you want to use the SKA to popularise science in the minds of many young people out there, who will dream; who will one day become the astronomers; who will make Bernie a not- so-very significant figure one day. They will be getting the next Mapungubwe Orders because we nurture them. We excite them through what we are doing, hon Smith, and I think that is very important.
We must also learn to communicate our work much more effectively. Yes, we must target the 1,5% and yes, it is true, there has been a backward slide. We must take that seriously. With the work that we are doing in the tax incentives, the uptake has not been what we were hoping it would be. So, we have been working very carefully with Sars and with the Treasury to ensure that we tighten up these instruments to get better uptake, because the real decline in expenditure in research and development has been on the private- sector side. It has been a difficult period, admittedly, and of course some of the major projects, such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor and its discontinuation, had a major impact on the amount of research and development done by the private sector. Yhu! [Gosh!] This man is going to stop me very soon! [Laughter.]
Hon Ndlazi, the 23 higher-education institutions that we have in our country are now served at speeds of up to - how many gigabytes per second? A lot. A lot! [Interjections.] I thought one of you would help me! The fact of the matter is that in terms of the ICT needs of our universities and higher research institutions, we are very close to the international benchmark, and that is a fact.
Agb Alberts, ek is nie s nuut in die pos nie, weet jy? Ek was daar en ek het goeie onderwysers, soos Minister Pandor, gehad. Ek is al baie jare in die pos. Dit is net onlanks dat ek 'n Minister geword het, maar daar is nie s groot 'n verskil nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.) [Hon Alberts, I am not that new in the post, you know? I was there and I had good teachers like Minister Pandor. I have been in the post for many years now. It is only recently that I became a Minister, but there is not such a big difference.]
A lot of issues were raised about SunSpace and Information Systems (Pty) Ltd. Let me just say a couple of things. SunSpace is a private company. Yes, we had big dreams for SunSpace, and SunSpace had big ambitions. It developed very, very serious human capabilities. They had it, but unfortunately they did not get the international contracts that all of us were hoping they would get. Effectively, SunSpace became insolvent. Now, it is true, we must use our taxpayers' money responsibly. Just salvaging an insolvent company would not have been a responsible use of taxpayers' money. The decision to merge or rescue SunSpace was the right decision, but to rescue it in the right way was important. So, we - or rather, SunSpace itself - did appoint a business rescue practitioner; we put a lot of money into SunSpace and a lot of effort into rescuing the human capabilities, the human capital that is there. However, I think this is going to be a topic for discussion in the portfolio committee so that we can go through it in greater detail.
Aan die agb lid Line-Hendriks, nee, u Afrikaans is uitstekend, man! [To the hon member Line-Hendriks, no, your Afrikaans is outstanding, man!] [Interjections.]
I do not know why you apologise for your written Afrikaans because you were reading what you wrote. [Applause.] Thank you for what you said about the SKA. Thank you very much to the hon Terblanche also.
One thing we should all be mindful of, however, is that this is a global project. It is a project that has put Africa on the map such as no other scientific project has ever done. So, we must be a bit careful to avoid it becoming a local economic development project. We want the people in Carnarvon to benefit, as people in Sutherland have benefited, but we can go only so far in the local benefit. We do not want people in the rest of South Africa to say: "It brought development to Carnarvon, you know - what about the rest of us?" We have got to embrace it as a national project that puts our country on the map in the area of science and technology such as no other project has. There will be jobs - and many jobs - for engineers, for technicians, for astronomers. They are coming, but they are not all going to be located in Carnarvon, and I think you must help us manage that process. [Applause.]
I thank the hon Dunjwa for trying to wrap it all up. I think your role in the portfolio committee, keeping us all disciplined, keeping us all focused on our work, is well appreciated. Above all, I think the role of the chair of this committee - and all the members of the committee - is to ensure that it is not fraught with political in-fighting. When there are issues, there are serious issues, and we engage on those issues. Members of the opposition parties, you have really done me a disfavour here. With elections coming up, you have not given me anything to bash you on! [Laughter.] Thank you very, very much for everything you have said and done. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.