Honourable Speaker,

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) being located in the Karoo in the Northern
Cape represents a great achievement for the scientific community in South
Africa and will provide an opportunity for them to study the far flung ends
of our universe.

Despite this, those communities surrounding the installation sight of these
radio telescopes are still not benefitting from this project. Many still
languish in poverty while billions are being spent around them. If it was
not for the SKA project, one wonders if these communities would even be
remembered at all, because service delivery, poverty and unemployment still
ravage these communities.

South Africa is fast becoming a scientific hub of activity and this does
present us with a great opportunity to contribute to the technological
advancements of our modern world. However, to level success cannot be
maintained without continual improvement at grassroots, signified by
provision of scientific tools for schools and communities to access.
Otherwise we will end up relying on accidental scientific successes, which
fool us into thinking we are keeping up with the ever changing technological
and scientific landscapes.

We need to get back to basics when it comes to science and technology. Our
levels of maths and science in the country are appalling, with the country
being listed the worst when it comes to these subjects 2 years in a row on
the Global Information Technology report released by the World Economic
Forum. Most of our schools in the townships and other areas inhabited by
black people are dysfunctional and those considered to be located in the
wealthier parts of our country outperform all others.

If this situation remains as it is, we cannot expect to be scientifically
and technologically ready to meet the needs of our people in this modern
era. The department must ensure that in the foundations of scientific
advancement are in place before bragging about successful projects on an
international scale. Otherwise our country will always be considered to have
great potential yet incapable of truly benefiting from it.