DA calls on Treasury to reconsider major cuts to the Science and Technology budget
16 July 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on National Treasury to rethink the major cuts to the Science and Technology budget which will leave thousands of postgraduate students unfunded and do profound damage to South African scientific research.
We boast of our ambition to embrace the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, yet these cuts are an assault on research. Especially at a time when South Africa is living through a pandemic which has brought home to us what the true value of science and research is.
It is almost unbelievable therefore that the budgets of the various entities which actually pursue scientific work, much of which is indeed in ”Fourth Industrial Revolution” fields, have been dramatically cut, with no indication as to their future security. The R1.7 billion Covid-related cuts to entities such as the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) - both of which are already underfunded - and other associated entities mean that:
A number of new postgraduate students will be unable to pursue their studies as there will be no funding for them for the 2021 academic year. We have asked the Department to provide us with precise figures;