AZAPO – Azanian People's Organisation : INNOVATION TAKES A MASSIVE KNOCK

INNOVATION TAKES A MASSIVE KNOCK

by

Mosibudi Mangena

Generously endowed with a variety of minerals and varied climatic conditions in its different geographic areas, the South African economy is,understandably,anchored on natural resources and agriculture. And we are good in mining, animal husbandry and the cultivation of crops.

However, we have recognized that we must be much better than just digging holes in the ground, taking out minerals and looking after plants and animals. So we should, because the price we pay for buying all the technologically advanced goods from other nations is very high indeed.

And that is not too hard to fathom. Just think of all the ubiquitous computers, iPods, televisions, music systems, microwaves, cars, watches, cameras, cell phones and washing machines which we import or are manufactured here under licence. Can't we have South African brands of these things? Besides, what will happen in the future when our mineral wealth depletes and we are no longer able to exchange them for these modern products we need so much?

Correctly, we decided to gradually migrate towards a knowledge economy. That decision means we would invest in knowledge generation by giving support to our scientists, researchers and engineers, protecting the intellectual property they generate and then exploiting the said Intellectual Property (IP) to produce new goods and services, building new industries, enhancing our industrial capacity  and trading with other nations.

We did all the right things alright, including elaborating policies related to this future vision of our country, passing legislation to protect our IP and creating vehicles, such as the Technology Innovation Agency, to help in the commercialization of our innovations.

But alas, we failed spectacularly at the first test of our resolve to move towards the knowledge economy. The decision to abandon the commercialization of the South African developed electric car is a blow that our move towards the knowledge economy might take a long time to recover from, if ever.

After the decision by the state not to mass produce the Joule, will our scientists and engineers believe anything we say about moving towards a knowledge economy? Do we really mean what we say or we just say some nice sounding things that we don't really mean?

Consider this: South Africa has been assembling automobiles for decades now, but we do not have a South African vehicle. We are paying billions of rand a year to subsidize all the foreign owned automobile manufacturers to stay in the country. We do this by giving them input and import duty credits for local content and fixed investments in local production facilities through the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP). In 2013, the MIDP will be replaced by the Automotive Production Development Programme which is to run until 2020, and that will probably be extended. They threaten to leave if we do not subsidize them.

Of course we can't let an industry that is worth 7, 5% of our GDP and employs more than 35 000 people to leave our shores. But why are we happy to subsidize foreign companies to assemble vehicles here but we can't invest in the development of our own brand?

It would be extremely difficult for South Africa to enter the big motor manufacturing industry through the internal combustion engine. But with the introduction of new technologies, such as electric cars and those using fuel cell technologies, we have a perfect opportunity to enter. These are automobiles of the future.

Obviously driven by concerns around the diminishing oil reserves, its escalating cost and climate change issues, the European Union (EU) gave billions of Euros to the European motor companies to do research aimed at the production of electric cars. A few years down the line, we would be subsidizing their companies to produce electric cars here.

The decision to move towards a knowledge economy pre-supposes that the state is prepared to play in economic spaces where there is market failure. It is thus inexplicable and incomprehensible why the state, after investing more than R300 million to develop the Joule from scratch and launching it at the Paris international motor show - a feat South Africans should be proud of -  suddenly cites market concerns as a reason for not commercializing the product of our innovation.

Does it mean the project was not properly thought through from the beginning, or are we a nation without ambition? Are we a nation that does not believe it can develop its own advanced products that can hold their own with those produced by other nations? Are we satisfied with just building beautiful highways and quarrelling about e-tolls, but would not dream of one of the vehicle brands being our own?

The vehicles on our roads are a result of painstaking development by their countries of origin over a long time. We may also remember that many decades ago, the South African state built SASOL, which is today a highly respected private multinational company.

We can build many more, if we have the will.

Mosibudi Mangena
13/07/2012

Posted by Administrator
22 Jul 2012
Azapo E Reng

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