Durban - South Africa must hurry and make the necessary investments to ensure there is a new crop of young scientists, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-Rith), he said South Africa was one of 22 countries in the world where 80 percent of the world's tuberculosis cases occurred.
“What we must do now is to develop South African scientists.”
He said institutes like K-Rith could provide the country with new, younger scientists.
While the country had many good scientists, they were mostly older and approaching retirement.
The K-Rith facility is a state-of-the-art research facility, to which the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has committed US75 million over 10 years since its inception in 2008.
K-Rith is located at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
HHMI president Robert Tijan said it was the HHMI's first project outside of the United States. - Sapa