Africa's readiness to host some of the dishes of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will take centre stage as the Ministers of science of the nine African partner countries meet in Pretoria on Wednesday, 25 March 2015 to discuss future cooperation in radio astronomy and other related matters.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, will address the meeting, which will be attended by the ministers of Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia, Mauritius, Kenya, Ghana, Namibia and Botswana.
In their first meeting last year, the ministers agreed to establish an annual African SKA Ministerial Forum to provide political and strategic leadership to the SKA, the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN) project, and other initiatives.
There is consensus that African SKA partner countries should pool their resources in respect of infrastructure and knowledge in physics and astronomy, as phase one of SKA's construction is scheduled to start in 2016.
The Ministerial meeting will be preceded by a working group meeting on 23 and 24 March.
Members of the media are invited as follows:
Venue: Sheraton Hotel, Pretoria
Date: 25 March 2015
Time: 9h00, Opening address by Minister Pandor, 13h00: Media briefing
Media interested in attending the event are requested to send their names and identity numbers for accreditation to:
Veronica Mohapeloa
E-mail: veronica.mohapeloa@dst.gov.za
SMS: 082 882 3818
David Mandaha
E-mail: david.mandaha@dst.gov.za
SMS 072 126 8910
