Speech by Gauteng MEC for Education, Angie Motshekga on the occasion of the official launch of the Trans African Concession and Murray Roberts Science Laboratory, Observatory, Johannesburg

Programme director
Professor Fred Hugo, Director of Trans African Concession
Ms Beverley Damonse, Executive Director of South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement
Mr Malose Chaba, Executive Director at Murray and Roberts
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to join you today on the occasion of the official launch of the Trans African Concession Gauteng South Regional Office's Science, Engineering and Technology Laboratory.

We should see more co-operations between your centre and our Sci- Bono. Our flagship project, the Sci Bono Discovery Centre, has supported and is continuing to support all attempts at improving the teaching and learning of Maths, Science and Technology in this part of the world. It has opened up new avenues of collaboration and partnership, especially in the area of Science Engineering and Technology (SET).

The Gauteng Department of Education needs these initiatives from the private sector to support education in Mathematics, Science and Technology and to help promote public engagement with science, engineering and technology. This should have the spin-offs of promoting career education in these critical areas of the economy.

We should continue, with your valuable contribution, to excite and inspire our young people to achieve to the highest levels in the gateway disciplines. There are an insufficient numbers of young scholars in our nation's science and engineering "pipeline" to replace the highly skilled science and engineering professionals who will retire in the next five to ten years.

We need to ensure that our young men and women who now account for more than half of the population, who have traditionally been underrepresented in science, mathematics, engineering and technology, become the next generations of scientists and engineers.

I would like to salute the participants Trans African Concession and Murray and Roberts for choosing as your niche for corporate social responsibility the area of Science and Technology advancement and development for the community. Your choice of area is also appropriate; you are launching your Science and Technology Laboratory in the heart of Johannesburg, the economic hub of the African sub-continent. This choice is bound to have ripple effects for the province as well as the country. Your contribution and initiative should make us realise the goals we have set ourselves as a country through Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
12 February 2008