11 November 2004

Director of Ceremonies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and gentlemen

South Africa also derives important geographical advantages from the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP). The programme is remarkable for its interdisciplinary nature and the manner in which it has forged partnerships. Along the eastern seaboard of our continent many countries, which share the Indian Ocean waters are working together to understand this unique fossil fish and its ecological and environmental context more deeply. In addition, their special partnership with Germany has given a global character to this important research programme.

Ten years ago, South Africa could not have possibly participated in the ACEP project because the partnerships and teamwork with our colleagues in Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar would have been very difficult to forge then. South Africa’s success in establishing a democratic dispensation has meant that international collaboration in science and technology has now become a reality.

The colony of coelacanths in our waters is known to be at least 24 in number. This group was only identified when the strengthened regional links in science and technology provided a good platform for this important regional programme. We also welcome the opportunity to link ACEP to the broader work on mainstreaming science and technology in NEPAD. ACEP is increasingly developing into a virtual institution across international boundaries. Collectively, the partners are working in harmony in a variety of scientific disciplines to develop a critical mass of highly skilled scientists in each discipline.

The partners take a shared responsibility for ensuring the sustainability of the environment, which has allowed this and other species to survive and flourish in the marine aquatic eco-system off our coast.

The cultivation of a culture to share expertise and responsibility by seven countries augurs well for the future; so does the approach adopted by ACEP to build capacity within the collaborating states.

In South Africa and Africa, scientific output is not what it ought to be. Public scientific output remains low, and in critical areas, such as securing patents, and new fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, there is a limited institutional capacity to respond adequately.

We also have strange anomalies in our science system. Even though the total number of all graduates has increased by 50% since 1994, the proportionate increase in the Science, Engineering and Technology graduates is lower. Despite this, there are now better-qualified scientists, engineers and health practitioners than was the case in 1994. However, the analysis of scientific publications reveals that the productive scientific population is ageing. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the distribution by age of university staff has not changed significantly over the last 10 years. We can only deduce that the new generation of academics has little incentive to publish or do research. Perhaps their teaching burden is too high; or they are not given enough time to develop into fully-fledged researchers. There may well be a multiplicity of reasons, but these facts alone do not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that the calibre of the majority of today’s students does not qualify to do quality post-graduate work in science and technology. The number of PhD registrations is up, as are research Masters and Honours students. But a sizeable number of these students come from SADC countries.

The message is clear; our universities must certainly do more to increase their enrolment, output and retention rates of young people in the science fields. More is expected of the lecturers to ensure that their teaching methods are effective, that they strive more to make SET studies relevant and attractive, and encourage their graduates to pursue research careers in these fields.

The African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme, a brainchild of the NRF-DST-DEAT partnership, is a high-profile flagship programme that is using the excitement caused by ships, sea exploration, sophisticated instrumentation, and new discoveries that extend the frontiers of science to capture the imagination of the youth, and inspire them to take an interest in science.

ACEP is a multidisciplinary programme integrating physical, chemical and biological sciences with technology in order to better understand the processes that sustain life, and find answers to questions that are of importance to our daily lives.

This broad spectrum of disciplines offers a wealth of opportunities to inspire the young and old to engage with science. For such projects to succeed, parents, educators and learners should be made to understand the value and excitement of the careers in science.

ACEP has adopted a four-step approach to capacity building based around the phrase: “attain, train, retain, sustain�.

The first word, attain, refers to reaching children and ensuring that they are so inspired that they seek careers in science and technology. To do this the exhilaration of shipboard activities is shared with children and their educators. In every expedition, the ship has visited ports in South Africa and its partner countries. Almost two thousand children have now had the opportunity to visit the ship. This is an impressive number given that the visitors have to be shepherded around the ship in small groups. In complementary shore-based programmes many more have been reached.

Train – to train people to be more effective and skilled is crucial. Training may be of short-term duration in special courses where students participate in the shipboard expeditions. Nearly 60 shipboard trainees have benefited from such experiences, most of them women. Longer-term training outcomes are achieved when young scientists are attracted to ACEP to undertake Masters and Doctoral studies.

Retain – retention of trained people is essential to the health of our system. Career opportunities can be made much more concrete and visible to young people when they encounter working scientists. We are creating the institutional and infrastructural capacity that is capable of absorbing our newly trained graduates, and provide them with employment. ACEP is part of this initiative, which is developing virtual and structural institutions in the western Indian Ocean nations, to employ highly skilled group of graduates who aspire to excellence.

Sustain – this word embodies the principle of ensuring a future for the programme. It includes the financial capacity to gainfully employ our scientists and technicians in the disciplines for which they have been trained. This is perhaps the most challenging of our targets.

The view most frequently encountered in the countries involved in ACEP is that caring for the resources of the western Indian Ocean is a long-term objective in which sustainability, conservation and improving the quality of life of the people of the region is both a current necessity, and a moral commitment to future generations.

Government is providing a solid environment for basic and applied research. By using the high profile of the Coelacanth and the mystery of exploring new frontiers of science to address the ongoing challenge of human resources in science and technology, we are providing key elements for a future generation of scientists, who will live in a world that is much more attuned to the issues of sustainable development.

Making science more interesting, attractive, relevant, challenging and rewarding, and inspiring learners and communities is highly commendable. These are steps in the right direction. So far ACEP has enjoyed early success - new coelacanths have been discovered in South Africa and elsewhere.

When ACEP visited Tanzania in the research vessel, FRS Algoa, last year, Tanzania had yet to find a coelacanth in its waters. ACEP scientists predicted, on the basis of depth, temperature and habitat profiles, where Coelacanths might be found. This resulted in heightened public awareness. In less than a year, Tanzania has already found 10 Coelacanths.

ACEP has increased our understanding of the ocean floor, made remarkable and significant discoveries in oceanography, and confirmed unambiguously that the western Indian Ocean is rich in biodiversity, but poor in biomass. Therefore, economic development should focus on sustainable, wise and less consumptive use of biodiversity, rather than unsustainable utilisation of the fragile biomass.

In the genome resource sub-programme, it has grown cells in culture collected from coelacanths. These cells were collected in an undersea expedition by a manned submersible at the depth of more than 100m. The programme has made good progress in advancing the GIS-based knowledge of these aquatic systems.

In some ways the discovery of the colony of Coelacanths fortuitously protected in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park carries an extremely powerful message. It is rather like finding elephants in a park after four years of protection! If these large creatures were protected in our park, and we did not know they were there, what else of great value to humanity awaits discovery? Investing in research about our oceans, especially in a region where millions of people are dependent upon the sea, directly or indirectly for their livelihood and well being, is a smart investment. ACEP has the ingredients to become a programme that can improve the quality of life of the people in the region, become globally competitive as it develops cutting edge innovations in science, and play a major role in human resource development, which will result in sustainable employment.

ACEP has developed a sub-programme on socio-economics and indigenous knowledge. The East coast of Africa, from South Africa to Somalia, and the Island States of Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar have a wonderful diversity of peoples, cultures, religions and spirituality. Their socio-economic circumstances are varied and unique, yet in different ways, all are dependent upon the sea. Their associations with the sea differ, but at each locality there is a wealth of local and indigenous knowledge. All countries on the ACEP have embraced the idea of having a socio-economic sub-programme in which the communities and ACEP develop stronger bonds.

The reason progressive societies are prepared to spend so much on research and its supporting instruments lies in the fact that human progress has always been driven by the desire to know more. More than simply satisfying our curiosity regarding, for example, our own ancestry, the harsh reality is that a country’s economy will not achieve its growth targets unless there is meaningful investment in science and technology. Furthermore, there are direct correlations between investment in science and knowledge generation, and the country’s enhanced prosperity.

Those countries that invested in Science and Technology, especially when times were hard, have prospered. Unless we understand the processes that sustain life, and manage them accordingly, we shall perish. Few people fully appreciate the fact that every breath that you take, the weather you experience and the growth of crops are all dependent upon the sea. South Africa must re-discover itself as a maritime nation.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Science and Technology
11 November 2004

http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2004/04111209151001.htm