The fourth Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) kicks off on 12 December 2018, with President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering the keynote address. Organised by the Department of Science and Technology, the SFSA provides a public platform for debating science and society. Intended to ignite conversations about science, SFSA 2018 provides Africa with an "open science" event similar to forums like the EuroScience Open Forum, American Association for the Advancement of Science Forum on Science and Technology Policy and Japan's Science Agora, convened with great success elsewhere in the world.