Pandor reprioritises her budget

Science & Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says she managed to reprioritise 151 million rand of her budget from the 2010/11 financial-year to boost infrastructure projects that her department is responsible for.

Presenting her 4.4 billion rand budget to Parliament on Tuesday, Pandor said that the money that she managed to obtain towards the end of the last financial year was to be used for purchasing scientific equipment, emergency repairs and the provision of broadband infrastructure.

However, Democratic Alliance shadow communications minister Marian Shinn expressed her scepticism at the “reprioritisation” as she was under the impression that those items had been budgeted for already.

According to Pandor, the 50 million rand would be used to purchase scientific equipment under the National Equipment Programme, 50 million rand would be used for emergency repairs and renewal of infrastructure at the national research facilities, and 55 million rand for the provision of broadband facilities to rural based universities.

Pandor said of the 50 million rand equipment spend, 15 million rand would be ring- fenced to provide urgent scientific equipment that was needed at historically disadvantaged universities. The remaining 35 million would be used to buy advanced researched equipment requiring, per grant award, an investment in excess of seven million rand.

Shinn said in reaction: “Where government fails to deliver is on the regular 'workhorse' equipment needed for scientific research and costs below 100,000 rand. This includes laboratory equipment such as power packs, autoclaves and safety air cabinets.”

Shinn also said that government had failed to budget for operations of high-ticket sophisticated items such as spectrometers that required a dedicated operator as they could not be operated by undergraduate students.

Shinn criticised the increased spending on infrastructure repairs and maintenance as being too little and described the facilities at many national research institutions as dire.

Pandor said that total broadband connectivity expenditure would amount to 217 million rand as on top of her earmarked allocation, the Square Kilometer Array projects would spend 60 million rand, the Department of Higher Education & Training would add 28 million rand and there was also the original Department of Science budget of 54 million rand.

She said that by the end of December this year every major campus of every university would have broadband connectivity to the SA National Research Network.

“This means that a student studying or a researcher working at Thohoyandou will have the same connectivity as in Rondebosch,” Pandor said.

In reaction Shinn said the plans for the SA national Research Network to complete a country-wide ring to connect all major universities and research institutions had been underway for years. - I-Net Bridge