Hon Deputy Speaker, hon members, fellow South Africans, good afternoon. Hon members, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Minister Blade Nzimande, in September 2019 tabled the Convention Establishing the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, Observatory requesting Parliament to ratify the Convention in terms
of the requirements of Section 231(2) of the Constitution of the Republic.
After two and a half years of multilateral negotiations led by Italy, the text of the Convention establishing the Square Kilometre Array Observatory was agreed in May 2018 and signed on 12 March 2019 in Rome by South Africa, Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. The convention seeks to establish the SKA Observatory, which will be a governance structure established under international law that will be responsible for constructing and operating the SKA Radio Telescope, which is a huge global scientific project in Astronomy.
The Convention does not set out any details relating to the policies and rules of the SKA Observatory, it also does not stipulate the financial obligations of members, but rather, establishes the mechanism that will govern how these decisions are made. The policies, rules and financial obligations will be approved once the SKA Observatory is established.
Among others, the provisions of the Convention are: To set out the purpose of the SKA Observatory; defines membership, roles of organs, the Council, the Director- General and staff; sets out high-level principles with regard to finance, intellectual property rights, procurement, operations and access. The SKA Observatory will enter into force once five signatories have ratified the text, including all three host countries namely, South Africa, Australia and the UK.
The rights and responsibilities of South Africa and Australia hosting the SKA telescopes and the UK hosting the SKA Observatory headquarters will be governed by separate bilateral hosting agreements. Hon Deputy Speaker, South Africa has been playing a pioneering role in international Radio Telescope. In 2012, South Africa won the bid to co-host the SKA, which is an international, mega-science project to build the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope.
The South African Karoo Array Telescope, known as the MeerKat, consists of 64 antennas located in the Karoo desert region in a quiet backdrop for the high and medium
frequency Arrays that will form a critical part of the SKA ground breaking continent. The SKA Radio Telescope project aims to answer some of Astronomy's biggest questions. These include, firstly, how do galaxies evolve and what is dark energy? Secondly, was Einstein right about gravity? Thirdly, how were the first black holes and stars formed? Lastly, are we alone on the planet?
Indeed, hon members, we are living in interesting times The portfolio committee is therefore recommending that the House ratifies the Convention which in no doubt provide South Africa the opportunity to leverage the significant foreign investment and prestige associated with the SKA project. [Applause.] [Time expired.]
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