Madam Deputy Speaker, the hon Ngcobo has a very strong involvement in global matters of climate change, hence the interest in this aspect of the data we will be able to secure from the Sumbandila satellite.
We as a country, play a very important role in a number of bodies that are concerned with issues of climate change. The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and the Department of Agriculture, as well as the Department of Science and Technology have senior officials who serve on a number of international bodies that are concerned with what is called geographic earth observation. These bodies look at a range of aspects relevant to what is now being called global change and, which, in a narrow reference, would be referred to as climate change.
We believe that the data that we will secure from the Sumbandila satellite will assist our officials and the leaders of our country in making very concrete contributions to the geographic earth observation committee discussions, and advancing the work we are doing in Antarctica - which is looking at the oceans and the impact of climate change on the oceans - as well as looking at agricultural and other impacts of climate change.
So, in all, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community and other bodies are concerned with matters of climate change. I believe that South Africa and SADC will be well served by the data that they will receive from our latest technological development, which is this satellite.
Each of these bodies will receive contributions from South Africans who are better informed, based on real data that we would have collected from our own instrument. [Applause.]