Denel’s auditorium was a hive of activity as the CSIR and Denel Steering committee met for the second time on 15 May 2014, after the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) eight months ago.
Willie van der Walt – Engineering Executive at Denel Aerostructures – in his opening remarks reminded those gathered that it was important for the partnership to find ways to bridge the “innovation gap and to ensure that technology flows from basic research to industrial application as it is on the industrial side that we create jobs and add a lot of momentum to the national objectives”.
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Dr Rachel Chikwamba (CSIR), Berenice Lue Marais (CSIR) and Willie van der Walt (Denel).
Dr Rachel Chikwamba – Group Executive at the CSIR – added that the strategic nature of the relationship made it possible for both entities to not only work on a variety of programmes, but allowed the CSIR and Denel to use their complimentary capabilities to push the government’s agenda as highlighted in the Defence Review, which was passed by Cabinet this year, and to help other state-owned organisations achieve their mandates.
The review also highlights the country’s strategic direction through 17 preliminary priority areas, some of which are:
- Systems integration;
- Secure communications;
- Information technology (including data fusion technology);
- Intelligence-gathering sensor and analysis and evaluation technology;
- Unmanned systems (air, ground, maritime – both surface and submarine);
- Missile and other precision-guided munitions technologies;
- Night and poor visibility vision (observation and engagement) technology; and
- Electronic warfare technology, etc.
In his presentation, John Wesley – CSIR Contract R&D Manager and Key Account Manager for the CSIR/Denel strategic relationship agreement – highlighted that the review would have an impact on the CSIR and Denel partnership, as well as in the wider defence domain.
“Many of the topics the CSIR and Denel are talking about are in the context of the Defence Review. A good example would be the joint approach to command control systems for the South African National Defence Force and other government departments, as this is part of the sovereign capability and strategically independence discussion; the question arises how these should be handled to ensure that best interest of our joint stakeholders are upheld.”
The relationship between the CSIR and Denel has been ongoing and is project-orientated according to Berenice Lue Marais, CSIR Senior Manager. “What we are trying to do in these bilateral talks is to create a technical network and we want the operational project activities to continue, but we want one or two strategic initiatives to take forward and to keep a bird’s eye view to see if there are any operational or pipeline projects that need to be alleviated to a strategic level.”
Wesley indicated that the Defence Review plus the South African Airways and South African Express fleet renewal projects are seen as the two top priorities for the partnership, as they both have important national implications for each of the partners, and also call for a joint approach to address challenges arising from the opportunity.
Chikwamba concluded that it was a good thing that Wesley spoke about the Defence Review as it was a useful guide for the steering committee to create strategic solutions to government’s challenges. The next steering committee meeting will take place later on this year at the CSIR’s Pretoria campus.
News contributed by: Mapulane Mokhoantle, CSIR Strategic Communication
23 May 2014
