Remarks by Naledi Pandor MP, Minister of Science and Technology, at the Signing Ceremony of the National Research Foundation and Max Planck Society MOU on the MeerKAT, Embassy of South Africa, Berlin
Ambassador Stofile,
Dr Fanaroff, Director of the SKA Project in South Africa
Professor Stratmann, President of the Max Planck Society
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Germany and South Africa have vastly different science and engineering systems. Germany built much of its economic success over the past decades through maintaining high-value added engineering and heavy industries and it is the integration of high-tech into medium and low-tech products that forms the basis of German innovation.
We admire Germany’s well-funded research landscape - some 70 Max Planck institutes specialising in basic research, about 60 Fraunhofer institutes conducting applied research, collaborating closely with industry, about 80 Leibniz institutes and 17 Helmholtz large-science centres engaging in basic, strategic and applied research.
South Africa is a resource-rich country. The mining industry has been crucial to our economic development. It’s both a major employer and a major contributor to the country’s export revenues. To a very large extent, the mining industry has driven the technological development of South Africa over the last century, with advances achieved mostly through government and industry-supported research programmes.
Yet we are still heavily dependent on imported technology. We are, however, committed to building our own knowledge generation and innovation capacities in other high technology fields and sectors.
We have and are building stronger science and engineering partnerships with other countries to reinforce our capacities. Today we celebrate a success story of such a mutually beneficial partnership. The Max Planck investment in MeerKAT is an outstanding example of where South African scientific and engineering know-how encouraged and enabled German investment. The instrumentation to be added to MeerKAT, thanks to the partnership with Max Planck, will significantly enhance the capability of the telescope as one of the leading global facilities for radio astronomy, and this before it is incorporated into the Square Kilometre Array.
The South African, German and broader international radio astronomy communities will benefit from this partnership. It is fitting that we can celebrate this partnership through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding during President Zuma’s State Visit to Germany, as this cooperation symbolises the new knowledge-intensive technology-orientated trade and investment partnership both countries are eager to foster.
Permit me a short reflection on what made this cooperation possible. South Africa focuses on those science and technology domains where it enjoys a comparative advantage in geography or knowledge. Astronomy is one discipline where we enjoy a considerable comparative advantage, due to the excellent conditions for observation. We have access to the Southern skies, with large territories unscarred by light pollution or radio-interference.
We aim to exploit this geographic advantage for the maximum benefit of our people. We invest in astronomy as a priority science mission - the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), MeerKAT, SKA. I should add that Namibia also invests in astronomy and hosts the HESS gamma-ray telescope, a unique African-European partnership initiative, which in 2007 was awarded the European Union’s prestigious Descartes Prize for scientific excellence.
I am pleased that our investment in Meerkat and SKA is attracting international investment from institutions like the Max Planck Society. We greatly appreciate that the society has committed €11 million to build S-Band receivers – used primarily for pulsar research – and to fund all the necessary ancillary equipment for the MeerKAT. The MOU we sign today puts this in writing.
The MeerKAT telescope, which is already under construction, demonstrates radio astronomy’s potential to be an unrivalled platform for training the next generation of African scientist and engineers, and to drive innovation in vital economic sectors, such as ICT infrastructure. The DST has funded SKA South Africa's contribution to human capital development, including bursaries for undergraduate and postgraduate studies, technicians and artisans, and the funding of research chairs, including six in the area of radio astronomy. These positions have attracted some leading astronomers to South Africa.
We place great value on forging mutually beneficial partnerships with other governments and institutions across the world.
Our collaboration with Germany is among our most valued partnerships, and we are committed to seeing that it grows from strength to strength.
I noticed with interest that when the Max Planck Society opened new institutes in eastern Germany after reunification it took pains to recruit women and foreigners to top positions. I also note that the Society set up international graduate schools, together with universities at which all teaching is in English.
It's time for you to expand south into Africa and I look forward to intensified cooperation between South Africa and the Max Planck Society also in areas other than radio astronomy.
In conclusion, I should note that yesterday I had a most fruitful bilateral discussion with Minister Wanka and we are both committed to strengthening cooperation between our two governments in science, technology and innovation. Within this context, I do hope that the time will come for Germany to rejoin the global partnership of nations committed to and investing in the SKA project.
I thank you.
