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Date : 12/05/2006
Source: Department Science and Technology
Title: Mangena: Launch of Soweto Meraka Institute Open Source Centre


  Keynote address by the Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, at the launch of the Soweto Meraka Institute Open Source Centre

Programme Director,
President and CEO of the CSIR, Dr Sibusiso Sibisi,
Executive Director: Linux International, Mr Jon Hall,
Open project leader, Dr Ntsika Msimang,
The Director of NICRO and staff,
Ladies and gentlemen

The launch and official opening of the Meraka Institute Soweto Satellite Office is a significant step in South Africa’s attempts to bridge the technological divide and to confront, in a direct way, the pressing technological needs of our country.

This satellite office of the Meraka Institute is intended to make a significant contribution towards our national efforts to dismantle the mindset that technology is something that is incomprehensible, and distant from the lives of ordinary South Africans. It bears testimony to the reality that cutting edge innovative information and communications technology (ICT) research and development can and does take place wherever people live. Significantly, today’s launch requires us to rethink conventional conceptions of the relationship between science and technology, or where such relationships are likely to be played out.

The Meraka Institute Open Source Centre does not subscribe to the often cited ICT skills shortage in South Africa, especially among young Black people. A workshop held in Soweto in August last year, confirmed to the Meraka staff that theirs was a healthy scepticism. That workshop revealed the extensive ICT talent and expertise that exists in Soweto. In many ways, that workshop led to our gathering here today.

The Meraka Open Source Soweto office seeks to harness the untapped ICT talent in this area. The office recognises the importance of developing scientific and technological know-how in places where researchers live.

In discussions about the skills-shortage in science and technology, and the development of strategies to ensure that our people benefit from the generation of such knowledge, we often erroneously assume that such knowledge can only be developed in laboratories located exclusively at large industries or institutions of higher learning. People who live in places like Soweto are generally considered as only the consumers of knowledge and expertise developed and fine-tuned elsewhere. But this centre is intended to chart a different path through which the people of Soweto should experience first hand, and enter the terrain of technological advancement.

This centre now invites us to move away from that logic because its commitment is to mine and harness the vast talent available among the many high-calibre people who are developing, writing and using Open Source Software in Soweto. It epitomises the objective of one of South Africa’s leading science councils, the CSIR, whose commitment is to nurture our peoples’ depth and potential in innovative research discoveries and developments. It also marks an important intervention in our science and technology landscape to make the research processes to produce richer and faster benefits.

How can Open Source applications benefit research on the smart card development for e-Government?

The Soweto office will also develop Open Source distributions for scientists and computer-based software training for Open Office and Linux. The benefits of the work done here will translate into various significant developments. In the information age, service delivery requires connectivity. The research undertaken here will address issues of how such connectivity can be maximised to produce a mesh that is both affordable and sustainable, and one that directly impacts on the effectiveness of e-Government to speed up service delivery. Efforts are already underway to test the possible inroads a wireless mesh can make in improving internet connectivity in Soweto. Researchers at this Soweto office are already testing the internet as a service delivery channel in e-Government, and have innovatively avoided some of the usual limitations of such tests by investigating the possibility of operating on a license-free frequency band.

In the light of this, it is particularly fitting that Soweto has been chosen as the location.

We all know that “necessity is the mother of invention”. The enormous challenges we face in addressing questions of access to resources, poverty and service delivery provide enough motivation why innovation should exist in abundance in places like Soweto. The workshop of August 2005 also revealed that ICT innovation already exists in pockets of Soweto. The Meraka Institute and its partners then responded by establishing this centre, which will co-ordinate such isolated efforts to maximise the benefits of a more streamlined ICT initiative.

The location of the Soweto Meraka Open Source Center at The National Institute for the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO) is particularly suitable for the generation and use of scientific and technological knowledge, since NICRO already supports an established extensive network for organisations and businesses in the area. The Soweto office can, therefore, readily contribute towards the development and enhancement of the work of this centre.

The Soweto satellite office also dovetails with the vision of NICRO Director, Isaac Meletse, to have an information technology (IT) programme that is able to produce a successful transfer of skills that NICRO has been enjoying regarding its delivery of building and plumbing courses. These courses have proved so successful that its learners and apprentices were usually offered employment even before they completed those courses. We understand that thus far, The NICRO has been frustrated by its inability to match those success rates regarding their IT programmes.

Soweto is also an appropriate location for an endeavour of this kind by young Black scientists. Thirty years ago, the students of Soweto began a revolution against the evil system of Bantu education. Therefore, if we are to maintain the existence of a forward-thinking and savvy youth that is able to take leadership on the most pressing issues of the day, then we need leadership that is appropriately skilled and informed to meet the challenges of the knowledge age. The activities undertaken within the Soweto Meraka satellite office are meant to nurture a tradition of progressive and innovative youth leadership that has contributed significantly in bringing us to where we are today.

I have no doubt that this office will also make a significant contribution towards the effort to improve South Africa’s competitiveness in the information age by harnessing the existing wealth of innovativeness in software development, and by assisting the people of Soweto to participate in the current IT industry boom. The Soweto Meraka office is the first step in pursuance of this goal because it contributes directly towards the development of an infrastructure for IT and job creation.

In line with South Africa’s legislation, which outlaws the patenting of computer programmes, the Meraka Institute Open Source Centre seeks to encourage innovation in software by encouraging entrepreneurs to abstain from patenting software since software patents kill innovation. They make it impossible for people to write new computer programmes since they might unwittingly be sued for infringing on some other person’s or company’s patents. Freedom to innovate is absolutely essential for the continued development of cutting-edge products and services.

The plans by the Meraka Institute to house the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa Resource Centre in Soweto will also serve to fortify some of the endeavours and effects I have already outlined. It is also the Meraka Institute Open Source Centre that currently hosts the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) secretariat. On this note, I would like to recognise the presence of Anna Badimo, who is finishing her PhD in computer science at Wits University. She is investigating Linux clusters that can help accelerate the rate of anti-retroviral roll out. Anna is one of the founders of Linux Chix Africa, an executive member of FOSSFA and a member of the Kasi Open Source Society. As we know, women are a great minority in the Open Source and information technology industries. We sincerely hope that Soweto will play a significant part in changing this anomaly. It is really exciting to think about a Soweto base, not only for developing innovative mesh networks for South Africa, but also for a wider network for Africa’s transformation initiatives.

This launch establishes Soweto as one of the places where knowledge is created. Talent for innovation also abounds in other townships. We hope that the lessons derived from the operations of this centre will be used to unlock similar potential elsewhere in our country.

I thank you

Issued by: Department Science and Technology
12 May 2006

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