Renaissance man

Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, knows a great deal about a lot of things which is crucial since the CSIR is involved in so many various feilds.

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When Dr Sibusiso Sibisi lists his hobbies, they all sound like deliberately stress-busting activities. He runs, exercises and skis, and while he does it to keep fit, he must have a lot of tension to shake off too as the CEO of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Yet Sibisi looks relaxed and invigorated as he talks about the amazing variety of work the CSIR does, and his appointment to the new National Broadband Advisory Council, which will hopefully stir the communications department out of its torpor.

"I'm cautiously optimistic of achieving something. We must ensure that we really add value to the minister by making recommendations that make sense and ensure that things happen," he says. "The close linkages between the Advisory Council and the CSIR mean we hopefully won't just say, 'These are the things you can do', but, say, 'Here are the ways we can get them done'."

Sibisi has been fascinated by science and technology since he was a child at Mariannhill, a Roman Catholic mission in KwaZulu-Natal. His mother taught at the school and his father was a school inspector. "Mariannhill was one of the few schools where a black child could get a decent education," he says. "I was particularly interested in science and learning more about the names I got to know, like Newton and Einstein. That was stimulated primarily by my parents, who were interested in education and bought Popular Science books, which I started reading from an early age."

When his mother tried to further her own education, she was told to register at a black university because strict segregation had taken hold. So she enrolled at Cambridge University in the UK instead. Sibisi joined her after he matriculated and gained a BSc (Hons) in physics from Imperial College, London, and a PhD from Cambridge University.

He returned to South Africa in 1997, first working in research at Plessey, then becoming a deputy vice-chancellor of research and innovation at the University of Cape Town. He was appointed to the CSIR in 2002.

Sibisi is a tall, slim, serious-looking man with a ready smile and a wide-ranging knowledge. He seems to know a great deal about a lot of things, which is crucial since the CSIR is involved in so many various fields.

"I try to understand a little about everything; that's where my passion lies," he says. "I'm not too bad at it, although there are areas where I'll be stumped. But I have to have some understanding of the things our people are doing, all the way from science to engineering to ICT."

The CSIR has a mandate to conduct research directed at addressing a need or solving a problem, he says. "Our work is stimulated by applicable questions like doing something about HIV/Aids, water or the environment or finding a better way to manufacture titanium. So the motivation is always ultimately to respond to a need."

It's a vast and exciting place for a scientist, software developer or engineer to work, with the freedom to innovate to improve objects, processes and, ultimately, our quality of life.

The CSIR is a vast and exciting place for a scientist, software developer or engineer to work, with the freedom to innovate.

It often works with parastatals like Eskom and Transnet, looking at how technological intervention can bring about improvements. Sibisi spends a few minutes telling me about coronas, regenerative braking and electronic signals that can detect invisible cracks in railway tracks. He makes it sound so fascinating that I want to don a lab coat and join the team.

Finding enough qualified people to conduct the research is a problem, he admits. It's imperative that our schools function well, he says, but since that simply isn't happening, he put his own two children through private schools.

That brings us back to his appointment as chairman of the National Broadband Advisory Council (NBAC). It's an initiative Communications Minister Yunus Carrim has launched to advise him on achieving a fully connected population by 2030.

But Sibisi says a good education depends on far more basic measures than giving schools broadband connectivity. "Clearly broadband can and will make a big difference, but we mustn't overstate the issue. If you walk into a school and the school gate is rickety and the grass isn't mowed and the windows are broken, you can install broadband but it probably won't have the desired impact, because if those other things are not working, the school is dysfunctional."

There's no reason to think broadband will work and schools will run an efficient IT department when such basic evidence suggests otherwise, he says.

I'm science and technology through and through... which probably means I'll never be very rich or powerful.

Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, CSIR

He also takes issue with people who say broadband is useless until relevant educational material is developed. Access to computers and the internet will benefit pupils even if the educational content is lacking. "People say it's not enough to just put in pipes, you have to put in content. I'm not convinced," he says. "Educational content isn't really an issue. Computers are useful and benefit the kids and the administration of the school. It should just be a standard part of the infrastructure, but any infrastructure needs to be looked after properly and that's a challenge."

When Sibisi was approached to join the NBAC, he had to agree. "It would be churlish to have views and not be involved in doing something about the situation, particularly because the CSIR is so strongly involved already. We've been rolling out the South African National Research Network (SANReN) and we have developed technologies for low-cost wireless mesh networks using peer-to-peer WiFi. We have already connected more than 200 schools using that technology as a CSIR project."

Sibisi hopes the NBAC will be able to make a difference. He's ready to give it his all, and believes the current minister is clued up enough to get things done.

When I ask Sibisi why he doesn't enter politics or the business sector himself, he says he's not cut out for either. "I'm science and technology through and through. I'm not a political animal or a corporate animal, which probably means I'll never be very rich or powerful," he jokes. But he does seem very happy.

First published in the June 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.