Nzimande praises SA’s advancement in vaccine production

Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dr. Blade Nzimande says he’s proud that South Africa has made significance progress in vaccine production. 

Nzimande was delivering a keynote address at the National Research Foundation’s award ceremony in Sandton, Johannesburg. 

The annual awards recognize and celebrate outstanding researchers and scientists from across the country.  

This year’s event was held under the theme ‘Innovating for a Sustainable Future’. 

Prof Blade Nzimande, Minister of @dsigovza, is delivering the keynote address at the #NRFawards2025. He commends the NRF for the choice of theme, “innovating for a sustainable future”, as it is profoundly important. Through their work, the NRF has taken “innovation” to heart. pic.twitter.com/K35FXCkQ75

— National Research Foundation of South Africa (@NRF_News) August 7, 2025

Nzimande highlighted government’s pandemic preparedness.

“Science is not inheritably neutral, science can be used for death and distraction but also science has power to overcome death and distraction and be used for development for the benefit of humanity. There’s a message we’re sending across all our entities that we are science for social justice. I’m proud that we’ve made significance progress in terms of vaccine production here in our country. Through amongst others there are vaccine innovation and management strategy ,which in short, we are calling it VIMS. We use VIM to clean these pandemics and disease. The third issue I want to raise is the importance of using science to advance social justice.” 

VIDEO | LIVE | NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION AWARDS