The South African minister of public service and administration on Monday addressed the opening of the Idlelo 3 free software conference in Dakar Senegal, saying software patents posed a considerable threat to the growth of the African software sector. Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, also alluded to Microsoft saying it was “unfortunate” that the dominant office software provider chose not to incorporate the the Open Document Format but rather to pursue an attempt to have it’s own document format ratified by the ISO.