The development of science in South Africa relies on a significant economic potential created by the work of the entire population of the country, but until recently used mainly in the interests of its white minority. The scientific potential of a country, or its ability to develop scientific and technical knowledge and use it, is determined by the scale and structure of expenditures on research and development (R & D), the number of scientific and scientific support personnel, the level of material and technical support for science, patent activity and a number of other indicators, not least the quality of the country's education and training system, which ensures an increase in the most important factor of labor productivity - the intellectual potential of society or "human capital".

According to a report published in 2005. According to the UNESCO World Science Report, South Africa accounted for 90% of R & D expenditures in sub-Saharan Africa in 2002 (US $ 3.1 billion). or 0.7% of the country's GDP). The country's scientific and technical potential is regarded as by far the largest on the continent (international experts note that any significant development of science in Africa, and significantly inferior to the South African level, is still noted only in Egypt, which spent $ 400 million on R & D. In 2002), with particularly strong positions in astrophysics, nuclear research, medicine, chemical and metallurgical industries, and agriculture [UNESCO Science Report..., 2005].

Having inherited an observatory, a university, and several scientific and technical societies from the Cape Colony of Great Britain, the Union of South Africa did not pay much attention to the development of science in the early years of its existence. Only the needs of mining companies pushed research in the field of mining and processing of minerals. Some progress has also been made in the study of wildlife and conditions for farming.

The First World War, having disrupted the country's external economic relations, contributed to the development of import-substituting industries and related research (chemical industry, rudiments of mechanical engineering).

In 1918, the Research Subsidy Authority was established, and in 1934, the South African Educational and Social Sciences Research Council (later the Humanities Research Council) was established. Established in 1920, the Association of Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa has attracted more than 300 organizations with tens of thousands of members over the course of the 20th century (some societies also accept undergraduate students).

After the Second World War, there was a further expansion of R & D, associated with the activation of the state's scientific policy and the transformation of South Africa into an independent state.-

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an active industrial country. A significant event was the creation in 1945 of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (IRGC), under the auspices of which the largest research complex in the country and on the continent grew from many research institutes and laboratories, with branches in all provinces of the country and more than 3 thousand people. research and support staff.

Despite the relatively small number of research personnel in South Africa (in the last 30 years, it remains at the level of 22-24 people per 10 thousand employees), South African scientists have achieved significant results in the field of medicine (just recall the world's first heart transplant operations performed by Dr. Christian Bernard in 1967-1968. Nobel Prize in 1979 to Alan Cormack, a South African biophysicist, for achievements in computed tomography), veterinary medicine, agrobiology and chemistry, energy, geo-and astrophysics, metallurgy, mining and mechanical engineering, and in a number of other areas of fundamental and applied research.

In the last decades of the apartheid regime, there was a significant militarization of science (the development of many types of weapons, including nuclear weapons), large forces and resources were directed to achieving energy self-sufficiency of the country (improving the technology for producing liquid fuel from coal, building nuclear power plants). Military R & D significantly contributed to the development of high-tech manufacturing industries (electronics, etc.), technological progress and improvement of quality standards in the economy as a whole, and the growth of knowledge-intensive exports.

Although the unit cost of R & D in South Africa declined from 1.1% in 1990 to 0.68% of GDP in 1997, i.e. it fell below the level of twenty years ago (0.7% in 1977/1978), the country's scientific and technological potential is still quite high. The marked decrease was due, in particular, to a significant reduction in military research and R & D in the field of energy (external and internal armed confrontation ceased, the need to achieve energy self-sufficiency disappeared due to the lifting of international sanctions).

In recent years, the country's new leadership's concern about the prospect of its technological backwardness and awareness of the need to strengthen its defense potential have led to the activation of state scientific policy and its additional funding, as a result of which the share of R & D in GDP has begun to grow again, reaching 0.81% in 2003/2004 and 0.87% in 2004/2005 ($12 billion). rand values in absolute terms) [South African Survey..., 2005; 2007].

Despite a slight increase in the gap between highly developed countries, the research potential of South Africa remained and remains the most powerful in Africa - 60% of spending on science and 28% of people employed in R & D on the continent at the end of the XX century [Center for International Higher Education, 2000].

Here it can be noted that in the last 10-15 years of white minority rule, taking into account classified military, primarily nuclear, research (several atomic bombs were produced in South Africa in the 1980s, and subsequently dismantled), the share of R & D actually approached 2% of GDP - the level typical for highly developed countries [more see: Skubko, 1985, pp. 34-36]. South Africa now ranks 39th in the world in this indicator, sharing this place with Poland, surpassing Argentina (0.41%) and slightly behind China (1.22%) and Russia (1.28), but remaining far behind the OECD countries (2.5-3% of GDP) [National Survey of R&D..., 2005].

Realizing that the decline in attention to science weakens the country's competitiveness in world markets, the new leadership, in accordance with the National R & D Strategy adopted in 2002, plans to return the share of science expenditures in GDP to 1% by 2008, i.e. essentially restore the level of expenditures already achieved in the previous decade.-

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the apartheid era [Engineering News, 23.03.2006]. It is interesting that the leadership of post-communist Russia faces similar problems, as the share of science expenditures in GDP has fallen to the level of developing countries.

Established in 2002 in accordance with the new scientific strategy, a separate Department of Science and Technology with the rank of a ministry (previously science, culture and the arts were held in one department) coordinates the activities of a wide range of scientific institutions in the public sector (including eight research centers - "councils": the largest research center in Africa - the IRGC, the Councils for universities (mainly concentrated in six leading universities - Cape Town, Natal, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, the Orange Free State and the Witwatersrand), business and non-profit organizations. In total, the state budget allocates about 3 billion rand a year for research and development in scientific councils and universities. The National R & D strategy, which is aimed at "improving national competitiveness in a rapidly changing and increasingly knowledge-based international environment, improving the quality of life, especially by reducing poverty", prioritizes the development of "human capital", information and communication media, biotechnology, mineral processing and astronomical research, which have recently culminated in the creation of a number of new technologies. The Great South African Telescope is the most powerful optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. In the field of biotechnology, interesting additions have been developed to the already established production of gasoline from coal. Thus, the production of ethanol from corn and other cheap agricultural raw materials has been mastered, the addition of which to gasoline (up to 20%) can significantly reduce the cost of fuel and make car exhaust much less toxic.

Over the past two years, seven state-funded "centers of excellence" in the most promising areas of research have been created on the basis of university science (concentrated in a few leading universities). Steps are being taken to modernize the rapidly aging and decaying scientific infrastructure. A high-tech Computer Technology center has been built to serve the widest range of research [South African National Research..., 2002].

In 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers authorized the Department of Science and Technology to actively promote scientific and technological progress in the following promising areas through a system of state and university laboratories: space research (IRGC Satellite Communications Center), nanotechnology and hydrogen fuel. At the initiative of the Department, a Fund to Support Patent licensing activities was recently created in order to increase the still rather low "productive output" of research. The Department of Science and Technology, together with the Department of Education, was to develop and approve a three-year National R & D Expenditure Plan starting in 2005. Interagency barriers continue to complicate the coordination of R & D in state and semi-State institutions: suffice it to say that the IRGC Board is appointed by the Department of Commerce and Industry, which is implementing, and quite successfully, its R & D program "Human Resources and Technology for Industry"1 and is not particularly willing to link its policies with the Department of Science and Technology.

The dynamics of some key indicators of R & D development in the country in the current decade are reflected in the following data:

1 In 1995-2001. Total public and private expenditures for this program increased from RAND 16 million to RAND 257 million, and the number of research projects increased from 78 to 268, respectively.

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Table

Years

2001/2002

2003/2004

R & D development costs (billion rand)

7.488

10.083

same in % of GDP

0.76

0.81

including in the civil sector

0.71

0.72

Total number of employees in R & D (including graduate students)

26913

30703

the same applies to full-time employment

21195

25185

including researchers

14182

14129

Number of researchers per 1,000 employees

3.1

2.2

Percentage of female researchers

36.0

38.0

-----

Source: [South African Survey of Research..., 2005, p. 7].

These "key figures" indicate a significant increase in absolute and specific (to GDP) R & D expenditures in the current decade, although mainly due to an increase in spending on military research: while the overall share of R & D increased from 0.76 (according to later updated data, 0.73%) to 0.81% of GDP, the share of expenditures in civilian industries remained almost constant. unchanged (from 0.71 to 0.72%). It should be noted that South Africa is an important producer and exporter of high-tech military equipment, including self-propelled howitzers, multiple launch rocket systems, various laser and optical sights, etc.Historically, this was largely due to the significant efforts of the white minority regime to build up its own military-technical potential in the face of international boycotts. ARMSCOR, the state-owned ARMSCOR corporation, was in charge of weapons production, and then the Denel company, which split off from it (ARMSCOR still had purchases), and the Atomic Energy Commission, whose annual budget in the second half of the 1980s was about $ 1 billion, was in charge of military nuclear research. rands. After peaking at RAND 1.8 billion in 1987/1988, total military R & D spending fell to RAND 0.5 billion. during the transfer of power to the black majority in 1994/1995 [African Security Review, 1996, N5].

After the" collapse " of the 1990s, attention to the military-technical sphere (and related funding) It is growing again in connection with South Africa's participation in international peacekeeping operations and the need to ensure regional security and protect strategic raw material deposits from potential threats.

Reflecting the continuing shortage of highly qualified personnel, the number of researchers employed in research remained virtually unchanged (14,000 people, or 2.2 per thousand employed), although the total number of employed personnel increased from 27 to almost 31,000 due to scientific support and engineering workers from non-white racial and ethnic groups (due to which the share of the latter reached 30% of all employees engaged in R & D). Expert assessments indicate that the technical re-equipment of science is not very fast and the low productivity of the technical personnel employed in it is low. There is an aging of scientific personnel: the share of scientific publications of scientists over 50 years of age increased from 18% to 45% in 1990-1998. Only 15% of publications in 2001 were published by scientists under the age of 40. In 1994-2001, more than 17,000 R & D and technology workers, mostly white, left the country (mostly resettled in five countries: England, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand) [ww.scidev.net/News/02/02/2007].

The lack of highly qualified white scientists could not be compensated by the influx of representatives of previously discriminated racial and ethnic groups (among whom the vast majority are graduates of second-rate universities with bachelor's and master's degrees). Even with a complete cancellation

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The "color barrier" will take decades to recoup the costs of an entire era of discrimination, to create a cultural and educational environment for the formation of a significant layer of creative intelligentsia from among the African and other non-white population groups. The mechanical transfer of leadership positions to semi-educated people from previously discriminated racial and ethnic groups does not solve the problem and sometimes only worsens the situation. As the Russian researcher L. A. Demkina notes, "the lack of preparation of the overwhelming majority of the African part of South African society for full participation and entry into modern society (economy, politics and social sphere), due to the entire previous colonial-racist order, leads, in our opinion, to a phenomenon that could be described as "sliding"."in the state of a developing country. This is reflected in the growth of the so-called informal economy, the growth of unemployment and the accompanying criminal social life" [Demkina, 2006, p. 140].

In recent years, the South African Government has done much to overcome the legacy of apartheid in education. At least 20% of the budget is spent on education (about RAND 60 billion per year), and spending is growing by 8-9% per year, outpacing GDP growth. More than 1 million students study at 21 universities, 15 technical institutes and many colleges. Although there are about 12 million students in the country's 28,000 schools, there is still a 30% illiteracy rate among the population over the age of 15 (almost exclusively African), and between 6 and 8 million adults are functionally illiterate. Among white residents of the country over the age of 20, 65% have completed secondary, specialized secondary or higher education, for Indians this figure is 40%, "colored" - 17% and Africans - only 14%. At the time of the transition of power to the black majority in 1994, more than 90% of the country's scientists and engineers were white. Since then, if the situation has changed, it is more quantitative than qualitative. In 1990-2001, the share of scientific publications published by representatives of the African, "colored" and Indian populations in the country increased in aggregate from only 3.5 to 8% of their total number.It remained negligible - less than one-tenth of the total value [South Africa's National Research..., 2002].

There was a further increase, from 36% to 38%, in 2001/2002-2003/2004, in the proportion of highly socially and creatively active South African women among researchers, which is already quite significant by international standards.

The specific contribution of the state to the development of R & D (21.9% is implemented in the public sector and 28.1% is financed by it, data for 2003/2004, which is equal to the average of 28.9% in science funding for highly developed OECD countries) decreased in comparison with the apartheid era, and private business came to the fore (55.5% in implementation and 58 about one-fifth of the funding is provided by the higher education sector, while 10 % of science funding comes from abroad), which was associated, in particular, with the privatization of such major state-owned corporations as coal-chemical SASOL and metallurgical ISKOR, as well as the cessation of military nuclear research. Although even in the last period of white minority rule, the state's contribution tended to decline, to confirm this, I would like to quote my own work of that time: "Since the period between the two world Wars, the development of R & D in South Africa has been characterized by a high degree of state participation, although even in the 30s and 40s, science "set the tone" the largest mountain houses. In the 60s and 70s, the state in South Africa financed more than half of R & D expenditures (65% of expenditures in 1969/70). and 52% in 1977/78), but in the early 1980s - only 43%, which roughly corresponds to the situation in developed capitalist countries. But more importantly, it also uses about half of the gross expenditure on science in its laboratories (at the end of the 60s, even about 60%), which allocates

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a country (along with Canada and Australia) among the countries of developed capitalism. To some extent, such nationalization of science is a "crutch" for the insufficiently mature private monopoly sector of South Africa, a conscious acceleration of industrialization and scientific and technological development by the ruling circles. In the 1970s, when the country's leading monopolies not only achieved a high level of industrial maturity and financial independence, but also became global capital exporters, there was a certain reduction in state participation in favor of business. Similar changes occurred in Canada, where in 1960 - 1978 the state's share in R & D financing decreased from 64 to 48%, and in development-from 54 to 31%, with a corresponding increase in the share of private capital " [Skubko, 1985, pp. 35-36].

The share of basic research in R & D expenditures increased in South Africa from 15% in 1977/1978 to 25% in 2003/2004, which is considered a good level by international standards and indicates a significant focus on basic science (primarily its university sector). This meets the long-term interests of the economy, preparing the conditions for the transfer of production to new organizational and technical principles. At the same time, the share of applied research and development also increased from 28% to 38% over the specified period, which indicates an improvement in the relationship between science and production in the context of an increasing role of private business in financing and implementing R & D. At the same time, scientists express concerns about the prospects for basic science and humanities research due to the recent increase in pressure on universities to increase the "market-commodity", practical output of their scientific potential.

South Africa is an engine of inter-African scientific and technical cooperation under the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) program. In November 2003, an inter-African conference on science and technology was held in Johannesburg, which was attended by representatives from 53 countries of the continent. As part of the agreed Action Plan, it was decided to increase the level of R & D spending in the participating countries to at least 1% of their GDP by 2010. An agreement was reached on scientific and technical cooperation in such areas as the fight against poverty, illiteracy, training of qualified personnel, health care (with a special focus on problems related to the spread of HIV infection), aerospace research, etc.

The opening of the Inter-African Mathematical Institute and the African Laser Center was timed to coincide with this conference in Cape Town. A regional Council of Ministers of Science and Technology has been established (within the framework of SADC, the South African Development Organization). It is planned to create a South African Aerospace Agency in the near future, which will, among other things, launch satellites together with other African countries (states of the region, Nigeria, Algeria, etc.) with the technical assistance of NASA, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency and the European Space Agency. The European Union not only cooperates extensively with South Africa in science and technology, but also actively finances South African science: mainly due to the EU, foreign funding for South African R & D, as already noted, reached 10% of total R & D expenditures in 2003/2004 (compared to almost zero in 1994, the year of the end of the apartheid regime). Special attention is also paid to the development of scientific and technological ties with Brazil and India, which South Africa considers as its strategic partners. After the recent visits to South Africa by Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Myasnikovich. There has been a significant intensification of Russian-South African scientific and technical cooperation, primarily in such areas as space exploration, nuclear research, and mining and processing of minerals.

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In conclusion, it should be noted that South Africa has mostly managed to maintain the relatively high scientific and technological potential of the economy achieved during the years of white minority rule. At the same time, as noted by reputable international experts [Sunil Mani, 2001, abstract], the efforts of the South African state to increase it in recent years (generous state funding for various innovative projects, tax incentives for companies investing in R & D, etc.) are not yet yielding tangible results, mainly due to the limited capacity of the South African economy. the human resources base of South African science, the lack of the necessary "critical mass" of highly qualified scientists and engineers.

list of literature

Demkina L. A. Some aspects of socio-political development of South African society after 1994, Moscow, 2006.

Skubko Yu. S. New phenomena in the economy of South Africa, Moscow, 1985.
African Security Review (L.). 1996. N 5.

Center for International Higher Education. Boston: Boston College, Spring 2000.

Engineering News (Johannesburg). 23.03.2006.

Resources for Research and Development 1977/78. Office of the Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister. Pretoria, 1979.

South Africa's National Research and Development Strategy. Government of the Republic of South Africa. Pretoria, 2002.

South African Survey of Research and Development (R&D) in 200312004. Human Sciences Research Council on behalf the Department of Science and Technology. Pretoria, 2005.

South African Survey of Research and Development in 200412005. Department of Science and Technology. Pretoria, 2007.

Sunil Mani. Government and Innovation Policy. An Analysis of the South African Experience since 1994. N.Y.: UN University, Maastricht, 2001.

UNESCO Science Report 2005. Paris, 2005.

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