Minister Blade Nzimande: Opening of Science Forum South Africa 2025

Programme Director, Dr. Mlungisi Cele, who is also our Director-General of the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation;
Our Deputy Minister, Dr. Nomalungelo Gina;
My Special Advisor, Mr Nqaba Nqandela;
Our Science Expert, Dr. Derrick Swartz;
Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps; 
Our special guest speakers;
DDGs and other Senior Officials of our Department and other Government departments;
Our cohosts, Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa.
Heads of our Science and Academic Institutions; 
Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs;
Civil Society organisations;
Exhibitors;
Students;
Members of the media:

It is my honour and privilege to deliver this address to officially open Science Forum South Africa 2025. 

Science Forum South Africa has become Africa’s foremost platform for strategic science, technology, and innovation dialogue. This year is particularly special as this Forum celebrates 10 years of insightful dialogue and also coincides with the conclusion of our country’s G20 Presidency. I will expand on this aspect later.

This year, SFSA 2025 is held under the theme “Placing Science, Technology and Innovation at the centre of Government, Education, Industry and Society.”

This theme is our Department’s recently adopted mantra and a potent national call to ensure that all aspects of our national development are driven or inspired by science, technology and innovation and that we must consistently raise the levels of public awareness about the value of science.

SFSA 2025 brings together over 6000 participants, including scientists, policymakers, youth innovators, entrepreneurs and civil society representatives.

The delegates can expect to participate in over 38 side events and 91 high-level panel discussions on such topics as science diplomacy, inclusive innovation, disruptive technologies, science journalism, the AU’s Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA 2034).

SFSA 2025 will also include an exhibition with dozens of engaging exhibits. One of its other exciting features is the South African Tech Challenge 2025. This initiative aims to identify high-potential SMMEs, whose technologies address societal challenges. I am pleased to state that the winners of this Challenge will be announced later today.

The second issue I wish to reflect on is the prevailing geopolitical and economic climate. We are living through one of the most paradoxical moments in human history.

This era has seen the emergence of some of the most breathtaking technological advances in human history in the form of AI, robotics, and biotechnology. 

At the same time, we have also witnessed alarming levels of social inequality emerging in many parts of the world alongside unprecedented levels of wealth acquisition by a small number of people who monopolise much of the world’s income and wealth. 
The contradiction where splendid technological advances coexist with vulgar levels of inequality is one of the conundrums that science must address if we are to create a fairer, more humane, and stable world. 

How do we make sure our science and technology innovations facilitate pathways for social inclusion and social justice? 

In which ways can we position science diplomacy both national and internationally, to make science accessible to all, especially the most marginalised citizens?  These are some of the questions I hope this week’s SFSA will help to address. 

Whilst it might be argued that science and technology are driven by objective principles and on the basis of the scientific method, its social uses are not neutral. 

This has been true since the earliest uses of technologies during the first and second industrial revolutions and the same holds true for the digital revolutions of our time and how technologies such as AI are being used as instruments in the commission of genocide in places like Palestine, Congo, and Sudan.

The third issue I wish to reflect on is the need for us to craft a fundamentally different future for our continent. We need to be more forceful about extricating the African continent from the legacies of neo-colonialism and dependent ‘development.’ 
To enable this fundamental shift, we believe Africa desperately needs what I call a Sovereign Research Agenda for Africa. By this, I mean a research agenda that is designed, funded, and directed on the basis of African priorities and concerns.

Not on the basis of the generosity of external donors – regardless of their benign intentions. To enable the development of a sovereign research agenda, we as African countries have to do the following:

1. Build robust science infrastructure and regional networks that are accessible to all scientists and researchers across the continent and thereby by enable individual African countries to produce the requisite numbers of young and women scientists and researchers; 
2. Create institutional and policy mechanisms to reverse the loss of critical skills and intellectual property by creating conductive working conditions for scientists and researchers; 
3. Develop the capacity to process and benefiate our mineral wealth and reduce illicit financial outflows. Each year, African states lose substantial amounts of tax revenue to illicit outflows, which should ordinarily be used to fund education, health care, and other critical social services; 
4. Develop closer articulations between science, technology and innovation and industry and economic networks so to enable tech-commercialisation and increase the scale and support for technology-driven SMEs; 
5. Develop a coherent strategy to use AI and other emerging technologies to enable the implementation of STISA 2034. I am pleased that the implementation of the African agenda through STISA will receive dedicated attention at a plenary session on Wednesday;  
6. Build credible pandemic preparedness capacity to address Africa’s disease burden and in particular the threat of pandemics. This is critical for the realisation of the African Union’s objective of ensuring that by 2040, at least 60% of all vaccines used in Africa are produced within Africa’s own borders; 
7. Improve the quality of maths and science education in public schools; and 
8. Perhaps most importantly, African countries must significantly increase their expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP. 

The fourth issue I wish to focus on is South Africa’s milestones in science, technology, and innovation. Guided by our country’s National Development Plan 2030, our Department’s 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation and the Decadal Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (2022-2030), over the last three decades, we made targeted investments in a number of critical STI areas.

As Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, I am proud to state that, today, South Africa has made significant progress in placing STI at the forefront of national development and this has strengthened our work in promoting scientific internationalism. 
In the area of space science and astronomy, we are proud hosts of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)- the world’s largest radio astronomy project and the Southern African Large Telescope or (SALT), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. 

Through the SKA and SALT, we have significantly enhanced our international collaboration in astronomical science discovery work, developed cutting-edge infrastructure, and provided significant socio-economic benefits for the communities Carnarvon and Sutherland, where these two mega science instruments are located.

In the area of health innovation, one of our local companies, Biovac recently got approval from the South African Heath Regulatory Products Authority (SAHPRA) to begin clinical trials of its Oral Cholera Vaccine. 

This breakthrough positions South Africa as a potentially significant vaccine distributor to a full-scale manufacturing hub and serves as a significant step in the development of sovereign vaccine production capacity in Africa. 

I am also proud to announce that, earlier this month, UNESCO designated our country’s African Institute on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIIKS), as a category II centre.

This centre brings together a network of 30 members, including four South African universities, two from Germany, one from Canada, and other institutions from across the continent. 

The Centre focuses on critical areas such as healthcare and wellness, climate change resilience, and environmental sustainability. All these milestones are a direct result of the investments that we have made as government in STI, but they are also the result of the dedication and ingenuity of South Africa’s scientists and researchers. 

The fifth and final issue I wish to focus on is South Africa’s G20 Presidency. As stated earlier, this year’s Science Forum South Africa pleasantly coincides with the conclusion of our country’s G20 Presidency. 

As you may be aware, the high-level G20 Leaders’ Summit concluded this past weekend and significantly adopted a Summit Declaration. As South Africa’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation and on behalf of the Entities that report to our Department, I wish to formally welcome the Declaration by the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

We particularly support paragraph 107 of the Declaration, which states that:
“We welcome the second convening of the G20 Research and Innovation Working Group and reaffirm the importance of promoting vibrant international partnership in science, technology, and innovation. 
We reiterate that research and innovation should be an enterprise that actively promotes the participation of women and girls in STEM and reduces global inequalities and asymmetries in the access to and production of knowledge. 
In this regard, we undertake to implement G20 Recommendations on Science Engagement, which aim to broaden participation in and make science accessible to all in society, bolstering our commitments to Open Science.”

In fact, the hosting of SFSA 2025 is already a direct response to implementing the G20 Recommendations on Science Engagement. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank all our partners who supported our Department’s work as Chairperson of the Research and Innovation Working Group, over the past 10 months.

It is also important to mention that Science Forum inspired another important global gathering- the World Conference on Science Journalists, which we are hosting next week. Another first for the African continent.

Call to action  
In conclusion, Esteemed colleagues, science holds immense promise for humanity and in particular for the building of a just and humane world, but for this to happen, we must be deliberate about harnessing science in service of society- especially the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of society.

To achieve this goal, it would require much more than conference declarations. It will also require a willingness to act collectively and in solidarity. Most importantly, it will require us to act with conviction and unshakable clarity about the kind of future we want to build. 

Let us all join hands in harnessing the power of science to build a just and humane world. May your deliberations be productive and may you enjoy your stay in our beautiful country. I now declare Science Forum South Africa officially open.

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