11 the state of science in south africa
C O N C L U S I O N
Apartheid led too, to a school education try and health and medical sciences chap-
system that deliberately under-emphasised ters prescribed the research foci and led to
mathematics and science education for a shift towards more applied research.
black scholars, and resulted directly in the
huge inequalities experienced in the higher A great strength of the South African re-
education system, the effects of which are search landscape has been the role of in-
still noticeable 15 years after the demise of dustry and science councils. This started in
apartheid. The shortage of skills in critical the post-World War II period with the estab-
educational fields, illuminated particularly lishment of the Council for Scientific and
in the mathematical sciences and engineer- Industrial Research (CSIR), which built up
ing chapters, can be traced directly to the a world-renowned reputation through its
policies of the apartheid government. physics and chemistry laboratories, which
were the hub of strongly supported basic
Ironically, however, the apartheid era also research. Soon afterwards, this was followed
led to the flourishing of science in some by the creation of other science councils
disciplinary fields. The disciplines of phy- (e.g. Medical Research Council, the Human
sics and chemistry were perhaps those that Sciences Research Councils etc.), such that
benefited the most, as the apartheid gov- today there are 12 well-established science
ernment invested heavily in scientific en- councils, all contributing to the research of
deavours in strategic fields such as energy the country. This period also saw the estab-
and armaments that would ensure South lishment of several large macro-industries,
Africa’s independence from the outside some of which (e.g. Sasol and mining com-
world. In a strange way, too, apartheid has panies) still have major in situ research func-
also made post-apartheid South Africa a tions, although it is true that in most cases,
relatively more exciting country with which industry’s role has now added a directly
to partner. The crumbling of apartheid in supportive systemic funding role through
the early 1990s brought with it a new wave the Technology for Human Resources and
of interest in a country that was technologi- Industry Programme (THRIP).
cally and industrially advanced despite its
pariah status. This was nowhere more evi- A watershed in the role of the CSIR was the
dent than in the medical and health scienc- paradigm shift during the 1980s in its focus
es which saw huge investments in health from basic research to applied and con-
research. The end of apartheid and the in- tract research, and a self-funding model of
stallation of the new African National Con- consultancy. This led to the closure of out-
gress (ANC) government also created an standing national facilities and the demise
opportunity for explicit policy intervention of the CSIR’s reputation in these fields, but
that shaped the science and technology enriched the universities, despite leaving a
research agenda of South Africa from the number of scientists, mainly physicists and
1990s onwards. The huge societal imbal- chemists, without employment within the
ances led to a greater emphasis on societal country. The change, in 2005, to the ‘Be-
relevance and as highlighted in the chemis- yond 60’ vision incorporating once again a
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TWAS book_Chap10-11.indd 278 2009/10/06 12:06:10 PM
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