The MEC of Education of the Northern Cape, Mr Kgomolemo Lucas;

The Chair of South Africa’s SKA Steering Committee, Dr Rob Adam;

Members of the media;

Friends and colleagues

This is indeed a very proud moment for South Africa to have been short listed alongside Australia to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.

Our country’s short listing as one of two possible sites for the SKA is indeed a tremendous step for South African science. We were among the four countries, including Australia, Argentina and China, to have submitted bids to host the SKA, which is predicted to be the largest telescope in the world. The final decision on the location of the SKA is expected to have been taken by the major international science funding agencies by 2008.

South Africa’s site bid was led by a Steering Committee chaired by Dr Rob Adam, CEO of NECSA, and former Director General of this department, Dr Khotso Mokhele, the former President of the National Research Foundation, and the Director General of the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara. I think it is appropriate at this point to congratulate the Committee and the entire SKA Team, led by Dr Bernie Fanaroff, on their remarkable achievements to date.

The SKA will be unique. Not only will it be the biggest telescope ever built, but it will also be the only one of its kind in the world. It is the only instrument which can solve the most basic questions relating to the origins of the Universe, and the birth and evolution of stars and galaxies. The SKA is also expected to solve the problem of the Dark Energy, which has recently been found to fill the Universe, as well as test Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to greater precision than any other instrument can do.

Further, it will investigate the origin of magnetism in the Universe and will be the most powerful instrument ever to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Ladies and gentlemen, I venture to say that Nobel Prizes will come from the research done with the SKA, and this immense telescope will undoubtedly bring great prestige to the host country.

I have it on good authority that the technology to be used for the SKA is at the cutting edge. It will have the fastest and largest data transport and computing capacity anywhere in the world, and will use new and exciting wireless and digital signal processing technologies. This in itself will generate very exciting opportunities for technology development and research, including the development of new high-tech industries in the host country.

Despite South Africa’s entering the race for the SKA site relatively late, our country has done extremely well in a very short space of time to be recognised as an excellent site. The proposed core site for the telescope is in the Karoo in the Northern Cape. So, if the SKA is built in South Africa, the face of the Northern Cape will be transformed, and the province will have the opportunity to become a centre of high-tech expertise.

South Africa initially intended to be considered only as a site for the SKA. However, during the bid process, it soon became clear that we could play a far greater role in the development of the SKA technology and science. In line with this, South Africa has assembled an excellent team to build the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT), which will be equivalent to approximately 1% of the SKA, and has, in a short time, been able to take a leading role in the global SKA development.

The KAT team has already been recognised for its competence, and is being called upon to assist and advise the International SKA Project Office on system engineering, costing and other key technology areas. Led by the KAT Project Manager, Anita Loots, the team is playing a leading role in collaboration with researchers in the UK, Holland, Australia and the USA in the development of digital signal processing for the telescope, software development and, in partnership with industry, in the development of innovative telescope antennas, using composites.

During December 2006, the South African SKA/KAT office will host a major international workshop on wide-field imaging and calibration, which is a key technology for the SKA that pushes the boundaries on high-speed computing and software development.

This team of young people has shown that South Africa can compete on equal terms with any one in the world in the most sophisticated areas of engineering. We can compete in the global knowledge economy on equal terms with anyone. That is what we mean by overcoming the digital divide. This project has shown that mission-driven innovation can work in South Africa.

The SKA and KAT projects are of significant importance for the development of high-level skills and expertise in South Africa. In order to benefit as much as possible from the opportunities for exciting science and engineering projects associated with the SKA and KAT, my department has provided funding for a graduate study associated with the KAT and SKA. There are already twenty students in this programme who are carrying out research for PhD and MSc degrees at South African universities, as well as two post-doctoral fellows.

Particular emphasis is being placed on bringing Black students into astronomy and high tech engineering through this programme. Students and universities from Mozambique, Mauritius and Madagascar have also been included. The students are being given the opportunity to be co-supervised by leading researchers from some of the best universities in the world, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester and Caltech.

South Africa stands to gain tremendously if chosen as the site for the SKA. The telescope itself is currently budgeted to cost 1 billion Euros to build and about 150 million Euros for operations per year. A significant part of both the capital and operating costs is likely to be spent in South and Southern Africa, and particularly in the Northern Cape. Equally important, however, is that the SKA will be unique, and so South Africa would become one of the major centres in the world for fundamental physics, astronomy and high tech engineering, such as very fast computing and radio frequency engineering, and would attract some of the best scientists and engineers in the world. The SKA would therefore provide a tremendous boost to South Africa’s development of very high-level skills and expertise, and would strengthen the country’s ability to compete effectively in the global knowledge economy.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, may I add that although South Africa is running neck-on-neck with another highly competent and an almost formidable contender, Australia, in the race for providing a home for the SKA, I have no doubt that we are adequately equipped to live up to this challenge. The level of skills and expertise that have already been demonstrated through the SKA and KAT project offices alone, as well as the ongoing plans towards contributing further to the development of the SKA science and technology, place our country in a perfect position to carry this challenge out to its fullest.

I wish the SKA and KAT teams many more successes in the future! And I would like to thank all of you for sharing in our small celebration here today!

Thank you.