Honourable Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa, Dr Rob Davies
Honourable Minister of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa, Ms Naledi Pandor
President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) - Berndt Feuerbacher
Honourable Ministers and Members of Parliament present
Chair of the Local Organising Committee, Dr Peter Martinez
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am humbled and honoured to be given the opportunity to speak at the opening of this important conference taking place hosted by South Africa and on behalf of the mother continent, Africa. In seven days our nation will be embarking on a national census to enable all sectors of the economy especially to provide resource and plan effectively.
This conference takes place at a time when the current administration of Government under President Jacob Zuma is entering its mid-term review to take stock of progress made or lack off.
Equally, this conference coincides with the third Information and communications technology (ICT) Career Expo being held in Johannesburg to encourage and support future leaders to enroll for ICTs and communications related discipline. I have no doubt in my mind that knowledge, skills, expertise and experience to be shared here will indeed help us to become a better world.
We are humbled to have this august occasion of the 62nd Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) hosted in our shores. Let me quickly also add our voice of appreciation to that of our fellow Departments in Government in expressing our deep felt sense of gratitude to all stakeholders involved in making sure that this Congress will be a great success and that is already promising. We have before us an excellent opportunity, as a region and,a platform where space role players can deliberate on space matters to strengthen and help develop our space industries from the perspective of global acceptable best practices.
In the recent past a number of developing countries have taken their tentative steps in becoming space faring nations by launching their first communications satellites. We are encouraged by the vision of Venezuela for launching Venesat-1, and in the continent by Nigeria for launching NigComSat-1, amongst others. The Regional African Satellite Communication Organisation (RASCOM) has finally launched its first dedicated communications satellite for the region, advancing the interest of 45 African countries in its mission to provide the much needed infrastructure for bridging digital divide.
South Africa uses quite substantial resources on yearly basis to procure satellite bandwidth for broadcasting and telephony from overseas satellite operators. It owes to itself to be self-sufficient and invest in ICT infrastructure that meets its needs.
We believe that in pursuing a satellite mission of our own, will go a long way to capacitate the State to deliver much faster the promise we make to our people for tele-health, tele-education and other essential services in the Apex 3 Projects needing ICT connectivity.
The National Satellite communications policy framework is being crafted against the backdrop of advancing the South African Communications Satellite developments in technology, applications and systems as they relate to fixed and mobile communication services, satellite broadcasting, position determination, navigation and timing, and interactive multimedia provisioning.
The National Satellite communications policy framework will bea valuable contribution of the Department of Communications to realise that coordinated planning drive and enhances the work we envisioned when the Cabinet approved in 2008, the:
- South African National Space Agency Act,
- National Space Policy and
- National Strategy for Space Science and Technology.
We need to build space based systems to mitigate the effects of natural disasters and have the resilience in our communication systems in particular, to continue providing services when everything else ground–based in under threat. Peace keeping operations in the continent and national security and defence efforts need reliable, robust, efficient and always on communication infrastructure to execute these mission critical operations.
The government of South Africa Government is considering centrally coordinated planning capacity to harmonize our government system, something the Department of Communications supports. This will help us in acting as one government rather than in silos.
It will ensure that all state owned enterprises are also coordinated into our system of planning and can be capacitated if necessary; and that their skills capacity as well as their organisational and business experience, are harnessed to achieve the goals of a developmental state.
In charting a future path, there are many more that give us hope and spur us on to put “all hands on deck”, in business unusual mode, to achieve a better South Africa for all her people. In the last ten years we have been benchmarked by various international agencies with regard to our policies, laws, regulations, as well as access, uptake and usage of ICTs. We have been assessed as having made tremendous strides in comparison with other developing countries in terms of policy and legislative and regulatory frameworks. The World Economic Forum has placed us higher than India, Brazil and Korea in terms of these policies.
However, there is no room for resting yet. We will intensify our efforts inspired by the enthusiasm, the hope and the resilience of the South African people in pursuit of that which is good for all of us.
It is apt therefore to remind ourselves of that instructive observation of hope and resilience, continuity and change, by former President Nelson Mandela, in his biography, Long Walk to Freedom: "I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I (we) dare not linger, for my (our) long walk is not yet ended."
The need for increased investment in ICT infrastructure has been highlighted by both government and business. The role of satellite-based infrastructure in this regard, must be addressed with greater vigour going forward.
The national satellite communications policy framework is poised to augment and complement the terrestrial broadband initiatives by making use of the space science and technologies to bridge the distances in connecting communities to the information highways and fostering knowledge economy and information societies, hence realising our strategic thrust of increasing uptake and usage of ICTs to meet universal service goals and the true convergence of ICT services in South Africa and this challenging goal demands that government must invest in ICT infrastructure like taking cognisance of the best practices from both developed and developing countries.
It is therefore critically important and fortunate that this 62nd International Astronautical Congress is held here in South African to provide a stimulus to our developmental aspirations and spur us on to leave a positive legacy in systems that would contribute to improved standards of living and a better future for our communities.
The space industry is an international business and we need a collective effort with other stakeholders to realise our strategic objectives in this area and we see it fitting that a specially designed commemorative stamp should be unveiled to mark this historic event.
What is of interest to me, I think to Ministers present here and some of you present is how do we make space issues a societal issues as oppose to be the domain of us who are knowledgeable on the subject matter, whilst notwithstanding the fact the astronautics is a specialised field.
Because decision we make affects majority of populations throughout the world, and we must make it our duty to put astronautics to centre of a people-development agenda.
In conclusion, to commemorate this auspicious occasion of South Africa hosting the IAC, the Department of Communications will be issuing a commemorative stamp. It is my pleasure and privilege to launch this commemorative stamp today.
I thank you.
