Government was taking steps to utilise innovative traditional knowledge, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said on Friday.

"[We] are to make a big deal around scientific exploration in indigenous knowledge," Pandor told a conference on intellectual property rights in Johannesburg.

"Indigenous knowledge is a key part of our innovation technology."

Pandor said that private companies in Europe had exploited knowledge gained by publicly-funded research in South Africa, including around solar panels.

She said the process needed to be reformed so that the South African economy and its people were able to take advantage of the innovations.

"In Germany every new house is built with solar panels," said Pandor.

"It's a joke, they hardly have ten days of sunshine a year!"

"How...with so much sun do we not have solar panels in our houses?" she asked.

Pandor said that while South Africa had many advantages it was facing a gap in innovation.

"I cannot understand a how a country as endowed as ours... why we should be behind Tunisia in innovation," she said.

"Aids is our pandemic. Why are we not responding to it here? Why are we not making ARVs here?"

Pandor was questioned by the audience on issues such as intellectual property rights in India and China and government assistance to new companies.

One person asked if adherence to intellectual property rights, of which South Africa is among the best performers, was not holding back economic development.

He pointed out that China and India's flagrant violations of intellectual property had helped build the economies of those countries.

"We need to be cautious about comparing ourselves to China," Pandor warned.

She said that China's size, and its population of more than one-billion people, meant that it could do things that relatively small South Africa could not.

"We need ambition but not ambition such as Macbeth which would kill us all," said Pandor.

Award-winning industrial designer Bernard Smith told the minister that while government had recognised his company in its 'Top 100', promised assistance did not arrive and his company was now bankrupt.

Pandor gave Smith her details and promised to investigate. She added that it was important for government to extend its support beyond initial awards.

"The Top 100 identifies successful entrepeneurs...but we don't look at whether their success is being sustained."

Pandor also promised that her department would work with all issues raised by the private sector. However, she begged the audience to take up their problems with civility without insults and aggression.

"We'll I'm afraid that I think that approach does not encourage communication. Nobody likes being called daft."