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Cape Town – The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project will lead to new innovations in manufacturing and construction and transform the SA economy, according to deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa visited the site of the SKA in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape on Saturday, SAnews.go.za reports.
Ramaphosa said SKA forms part of efforts to transform SA's economy through human capital development, innovation, value addition, industrialisation and entrepreneurship.
He said the project will create jobs not only during the next decade or so of construction, but also for the next 50 years of operation and maintenance.
“The SKA project, which is aligned with the African Union's 10-year Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa, will help drive human capital development on the continent. It will contribute to Africa's efforts to build innovation-led, knowledge-based economies,” he said.
READ: SA experts drive 3D universe map with SKA
Ramaphosa said the National Development Plan (NDP) highlights the vital role played by science, technology and innovation in national development and equitable growth.
“Throughout human history, technological progress has fuelled economic and social development. From agriculture to commerce, from health care to communications, from manufacturing to education, technology has transformed the human experience,” he said.
The first phase of the SKA will be situated in South Africa and Australia and there are currently 11 countries that participate as members of the SKA Organisation.
According to the project’s website SKA is an international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope, with a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area.
“The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research & development towards building and delivering a radio telescope, and will deliver a correspondingly transformational increase in science capability when operational.
Deploying thousands of radio telescopes, in three unique configurations, it will enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail and survey the entire sky thousands of times faster than any system currently in existence.”
