The onset of constitutional democracy in South Africa potentially marked a critical juncture in the evolution of its innovation system. At this point the Ministry responsible for science and technology adopted the innovation systems approach. This adoption followed the IDRC OECD-style review of 1993. Nineteen years later, after a full-fledged OECD Review, the extent to which the innovation system demonstrates continuity or change may be assessed. The assessment is broadly functionalist and considers the role of institutions and actors. While the polity has become more inclusive, extractive economic institutions persist. Likewise the social contract between science and society has evolved but it continues to show extractive attributes. It appears that thus far the innovation systems approach has been more of a rhetorical than a practical device with the pre-1994 and present innovation systems showing both continuity and disjuncture. It is these challenges that the current Ministerial Review of the STI Landscape (DST 2012) has sought to address.
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