Address by Deputy Minister Nomalungelo Gina at the IUA Dinner

President of the International Astronomy Union, Professor Debra Elmegreen, and members of the IAU Executive Committee,
President of the African Astronomical Society, Prof. Thebe Medupe,
NRF Board Chairperson and Vice Chancellor of the UCT, prof. Mosa Mashabela,
NRF CEO, Dr Fulufhelo Nelwamondo,
Director General of the SKA and Observatory, Prof. Phil Diamond,
Her Excellency, Joanne Doornewaard, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to South Africa,
Members of the diplomatic core,
The South African leadership of the National System of innovation,
The leadership of the Higher Education,
Distinguished guests, and
Ladies and gentlemen.

It is my single honour, on behalf of the South African government and the National System of Innovation as a whole, to address this important Gala Dinner following a week – long engagements in this International Astronomical Union Assembly. I have no doubt that this assembly, like many of those that preceded it, has concluded on very crucial decisions that will enhance astronomical advances.  

Minister Nzimande, in his main address during the opening of this Assembly went to great lengths in reminding delegates of how astronomy has been intertwined with the African human endeavor;

indeed it has been rooted to our very historical being from stone age society where seasons, historical periods, even prophecies were aided and abetted by the deep interpretation of  galaxies, moon and other celestial objects of the universe.

And so, the astronomical terrain has been a universal one and Africa has been very much part.

The hosting of IAU here in South Africa – the African soil – is in many ways paying tribute to the continent that has held beliefs of, and interpreted the world through, astronomy .  In this regard, we thank you very much.

As we have gathered here in Cape Town for this magnanimous assembly of Astronomy I recall the famous quotes by the Greek philosopher, Plato, that “Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another”

The growth of our astronomy community and the hosting of world class telescopes such as SALT and the SKA in the Northern Cape, is an indication of our long-term commitment to position South Africa to be a significant player in the world of astronomy and space science.  

Humankind has learnt so much about the discoveries and wonders brought about the deep scientific work in the astronomy, and the resulting social, economic and scientific progress that this has imparted to society since time immemorial.

 Our task as the National System of innovation is to go out and make astronomy fashionable to society, especially, the young people; we have been making good strides in increasing numbers of students and professionals.

Through scholarships we will increase numbers substantially to develop a critical mass in astro-physics, engineering and data science. Part of this task, is to intentionally build a new generation of academics who will teach in our universities for continuous production of graduates and to enhance  supervisory capacity for these graduates to progress to Phd level  in order to bolster  cutting edge research and discoveries from the data generated by the telescopes located in our region.

In normalizing Astronomy, we need to educate our society as they  appreciate our daily tools that many of us were not even aware that Astronomy played a crucial part. The few of these are daily applications in our disposals such as:

Accurate time keeping and reference frame for GPS. Our antennas based in Hartebeeshoek Radio Observatory (HartRAO), which is part of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, participates in the global network of telescopes that provide accurate time-keeping and GPS systems that supports everyday activities like commuting, traveling, and syncing electronic devices, disaster response, urban planning, environmental monitoring, and many other essential services.
Invention of WIFI through using techniques developed for anlysing and transferring radio signals from the black holes wirelessly later developed to found expression in what we now have as WIFI applications.
These are just few in many developments that have made social life and economy to advance to higher levels than before.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank this Assembly for recognizing that it be  held in a month, which in South Africa, is a women month. As a result, women specific lenses were put in place including a focused programme on Women’s Day which was open to the public.  I am told that on the same day, you had a live link to the International Space Station (ISS), which offered young people a unique opportunity to speak directly with astronauts in space and thereby providing an inspiring and educational experience about the possibilities of space exploration.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the modern economy of the 21st century where innovation, and disruption is an order of the day in an era where hyperscalers dominate the  4th industrial revolution whereby cloud computing, data centres, internet of things and zero latency in the connectivity for big data information technologies, projects like the SKA help our country to take part in this development.

For us as South African government, any development that does not include the poorest of the poor in rural areas and townships is no sufficient intervention. Our mantra as government, is: Leave no one behind. We are committed to take along everyone in embracing Astronomy and attract the youth from disadvantaged background into this exciting profession.

In this regard, I want to thank you tonight and wishing you all the success. We are looking forward to the outcomes and resolutions emerging from this Assembly.

Thank you