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South Africa’s politically pressured majority party eyes innovation and PhDs in manifesto
In the run-up to South Africa’s national elections on 29 May, the politically bruised ruling African National Congress has promised to improve the quality of education and transform the economy through innovation.
The ANC, which some analysts predict could receive less than 50 per cent of votes for the first time, vows to “transform society for the better” and pledges in its election manifesto, launched at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last month, to “invest in the capabilities of all its citizens” through education, science and technology.
ANC head of policy and research, Fébé Potgieter-Gqubule, told Research Professional News that the party supports the Department of Higher Education and Training’s revised decadal plan for 2019-2025, which reaffirms the national target for gross domestic expenditure on research (GERD) of 1.1 per cent of GDP.
There is some way to go to reach that target: the Human Sciences Research Council reported last month that South Africa spent 0.62 per cent of its GDP on R&D in the 2021-22 financial year.
Skills development
The ANC has structured its latest manifesto offering in terms of priorities. Potgieter-Gqubule says science, innovation and education feature strongly in two of the priorities, namely “industrialisation and Infrastructure”, and “invest in people and meeting basic needs”.
The party promises to expand skills development programmes in emerging fields such as data analytics and artificial intelligence. It says it will strengthen the post-school education and training sector through “better coordination, responsiveness to labour market needs and improved quality, throughput and access”.
Science and innovation will serve development, the manifesto states, highlighting that innovation in green technologies, climate change action and decarbonisation programmes will be supported. Industrialisation, climate change and technologies including virtual reality, augmented reality, blockchain, artificial intelligence and the internet of things will also be pushed to the forefront.
Aligned policies
Potgieter-Gqubule said the ANC manifesto emphasises that fiscal and monetary policy should align with the priorities of industrialisation and meeting citizens’ basic needs. She said moving towards the R&D spending target of 1.1 per cent of GDP will require an increase in all five institutional sectors that contribute towards this target: government, business, higher education, nonprofits and state-owned enterprises.
To finance its ambitions, the party projects that the national budget will rise again to recover over the next two financial years to R76 billion, said Potgieter-Gqubule, up from R63.6 billion in 2022-23.
If elected into power, a new ANC administration will draw up a fresh five-year, medium-term strategic framework and expenditure plan, which Potgieter-Gqubule said should reflect the manifesto’s priorities.
PhD promises
In its manifesto, the ANC also plans to contribute to the African Union’s goal of producing 100,000 PhD graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the next decade.
The country, under the ANC, is already chasing a National Development Plan target of graduating 5,000 PhD graduates per year by 2030.
Potgieter-Gqubule said a review of doctoral education published by the Council on Higher Education in 2022 shows that the ANC has made progress towards reaching the target. In 2010, the country produced 1,421 PhDs. By 2017 this figure stood at 3,057, increasing to 3,574 in 2021.
However, said Potgieter-Gqubule, South Africa may have to revise its NDP target upwards in order to fulfil its quota towards the AU’s ambitious goal. “It will mean that we will have [to] up our level of ambition quite a bit,” she said.
Research Professional News aims to cover the science, technology and higher education promises of major political parties contesting the country’s general election in May.