According to scholars Sven Grimm et al, 'science and policymaking should be an excellent match'. But in real life situations, the relationship is uneasy. Were the relationship between Science and Policy not so important for our nation, we might have been tempted to abandon the search for a more conducive interface and relationship between the two.

Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min A surge of positivity pumped through my veins and arteries as I sat in the august company of scholars, young and older on the occasion of the inauguration of new members of the Academy of Science of South Africa and the South African Young Academy of Science (Sayas), on 30 October 2025.

It warmed my heart to note that amid the many challenges we face, our country is relentlessly and steadily nurturing a generation of knowledge creators, innovators, critical thinkers and trainers of the next generation of scientists in various fields.

To begin her acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, Toni Morrison invoked what she called "the first sentence of our childhood that we all remember, namely the phrase 'once upon a time"'. Morisson went on to weave her entire acceptance speech around the ancient story of a wise and blind old woman, who was once visited by a bunch of arrogant youngsters, eager to demonstrate that the woman was not as wise as she was thought to be.

Here is my imperfect and inadequate attempt to emulate the great Toni Morrison, with my...