CSIR scientists to sue for unfair retrenchment

Bernard Smith and Gold Mametja, industrial design experts, say they were sidelined and eventually unable to obtain funding for their government-initiated project, DESIGNation, intended to promote the development of industrial design and engineering skills. A Business Day report says the two are now funding one aspect of their project - implemented in schools in all nine provinces - with their pension money and the assistance of previous sponsors. CSIR spokesperson Christa van der Merwe said that Smith and Mametja's retrenchments were part of a restructuring process implemented at the CSIR in 2005 to align the organisation with its mandate - knowledge generating research and technological innovation. Smith questions why the CSIR would close down a project commissioned by the Science and Technology Department - at the national government's urging - to develop a national strategy on industrial design for SA, which had been absent and which the government believed would see greater beneficiation and downstream value addition. Full Business Day report