Tag Archives: South Africa

June 11, 2012

SKA in SA – an international sensation

By Anina Mumm

Local and international media have been buzzing with news after it was announced that the majority of the SKA, the world’s largest radio telescope array, will be built in South Africa.

  1. On the 25th of May 2012 it was announced that Square Kilometer Array, the SKA, would be shared between South Africa and Australia. The two nations had been bidding against each other to host the most sensitive equipment ever to peer into the history of the universe. Newsrooms the world over covered the momentous event and congratulations poured in from officials and citizens.
  2. NBikitsha
    A great day for S.A and Africa. Well done to all. #SKA
    Nikiwe Bikitsha
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:04:44
  3. Thrishni
    Kinda cool that the country that has the Cradle of Humankind will also help figure out the origin of the universe. We rule. #ska
    ThrishniS
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:56:44
  4. agentzee
    Woohoo! So proud of our #ska team! Well done to everyone! What a great day for science in the southern hemisphere!
    Agent Zee
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:19:46
  5. 702JohnRobbie
    Well done to to the marvellous Dr Bernie Fanaroff on all the work he did leading the #SKA bid. @lead_sa
    John Robbie
    Mon, May 28 2012 02:20:08
  6. NicDawes
    As the great Laurie Anderson might have said, “Big science, hallelujah, yodelay hee hoo”. #SKA
    Nicholas Dawes
    Fri, May 25 2012 11:02:47
  7. But the project will not be shared equally – most of the dishes will be built on the African continent.
  8. Derek_Hanekom
    Only 60 to Aus in fact “@Loelof: Looks like 2500 of 3000 (dishes) are going to be placed in Africa…that’s the type of sharing I like #SKA”
    Derek Hanekom
    Fri, May 25 2012 10:52:19
  9. sarahemilywild
    Recap: #SKA is shared btw SA & Aus; SA won technical and so gets lion share, along with its African partner countries. @BusinessDayDigi
    Sarah Wild
    Fri, May 25 2012 09:11:21
  10. SKA_Africa
    Prof Jonas: We must emphasise that we got the majority of the #SKA. Africa is a destination for science and engineering. We should be proud!
    SKA Africa
    Fri, May 25 2012 09:42:04

  11. Politics

  12. Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor felt that the decision was unexpected. In the run up to the announcement, Pandor had repeatedly expressed her confidence that South Africa’s site was the more technically sound. Indeed, in a head to head comparison South Africa did come out on top. The international SKA team felt however that both countries had invested too much over the last few years for there to be a loser.
  13. Even if South Africa lost the bid, its astronomy capabilities already gained a big boost from, for example, the MeerKAT telescopes that had been constructed as a prescursor to the SKA.

  14. Everybody wins

  15. The SKA will not only boost the economies of the host countries, but other countries like India will benefit from the so-called biggest science project ever.
  16. BrianBoyleSKA
    One clear winner from the #SKA_telescope site decision. The Project itself.
    Dr Brian Boyle
    Mon, Jun 11 2012 08:06:09
  17. ConversationEDU
    The #SKA will drive South Africa to generate a “brain gain”, and will also “develop humanity as a whole” http://bit.ly/JQSfBj
    The Conversation
    Mon, May 28 2012 19:54:32
  18. Read more on what the telescope means for Wits.

  19. Fracking

  20. The area where the SKA will be built is subject to an astronomy law that prohibits any activity interfering with the sensitive telescopes, including fracking. News24 reports Pandor thoughts on the matter: ”There is no decision by government on that [fracking]. We must understand the science before any licence is given, but I will use the astronomy advantage act if necessary”.

  21. Funding Problems

  22. Europe and the US was to foot around 80% of the estimated R15- to R25-billion construction cost, but dwindling economies and America’s space budget cuts will not see this materialise; South Africa now risks going even deeper into debt.
  23. Overall, hosting the SKA has been and will be a big win for science in Africa. Construction will start in 2016 and the ambitious project is expected to be fully operational by 2024.
    Read more on the SKA in Africa.
    Click here for related stories.

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May 3, 2012

Been there, done that

By Anina Mumm

South Africa successfully hosted a 2 billion dollar soccer tournament in 2010, so building the world’s most powerful radio telescope at the same cost and with many more long term benefits should not be a problem.

Dr. Adrian Tiplady shared some of the advantages to hosting the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radiotelescope in South Africa with the public at the Wits Origins Centre last week. Tiplady is the South African SKA Site Characterisation Manager and one of Mail & Guardian’s top 200 Young South Africans.

The SKA is a global futuristic science project that was first devised in 1991. Tiplady explained that the telescope had to be designed using technology that would only be available in 2016. It will be 100 times more sensitive than today’s telescopes and will have the computing power of 1 billion personal computers.

Scientists use radiotelescopes to see into the past, to the origins of the Universe – an appropriate topic for a talk at the Origins Centre, said Tiplady.

Telescopes like the Hubble use light to take pictures but space dust and other obstacles may hide objects further away. Radiowaves move through these obstacles which means that astronomers can “see” much more by “listening” with radiotelescopes.

These radiotelescopes must be built in areas where there is little cellphone, radio and TV interference. Tiplady said the Northern Cape is the perfect location for this. He also said South Africa has superior technical solutions and is home to the world’s leading science and engineering team.

South Africa is bidding against Australia to host the telescope and rumours are rife that the two countries may have to share the site.

Tiplady said that although a huge disadvantage of this would be the high costs involved, his personal opinion is that sharing will ensure that scientists collecting the data will never miss anything.

At a press conference earlier this year the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, joked that not sharing the site was about the only thing on which she and the Australian minister agreed.

Published in Vuvuzela Print Edition, 2 May 2012

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March 21, 2012

Earth science desperate for quality students

By Anina Mumm

Wits Geosciences are appealing to quality science students to enrol for undergraduate degrees in Geology, citing a chronic shortage of earth science professionals in South Africa.

Dr Susan Webb , gravity specialist in the School of Geosciences, said high school students seem unaware of the geology degree when they apply for university.

Even though 150 first year students are enrolled for the geology undergraduate degree this year, the biggest group in a while, Webb said that for many it was not their first choice and some are repeating the year.

Many top maths and science students seem to choose non-science degrees. “Of the top feeder schools [to Wits], none went into science,” she said. They may choose actuarial science or engineering careers over geology but some end up in geology after rejection from those courses.

Wits needs quality undergraduate students to produce excellent postgraduates and career-ready graduates, said Webb. To remedy the current lack of interest, the School of Geosciences will have an open day called “Exploration Earth” on April 5 where high school students and teachers will be exposed to the field.

“Who wouldn’t want to do this job?”

“Who wouldn’t want to do this job?” asked geochemistry Prof Lewis Ashwal , explaining that geoscience is one of the few careers where you get paid to travel and spend time outdoors. Even an academic career has its benefits – “you should see my car and my hot tub,” he joked.

He concurred with Webb that geoscientists are needed in South Africa’s economy. Wits provides the only internationally recognised programme in southern Africa and its graduates feed the oil, mineral, engineering and water discovery industries, which are all important for development.

Another difficulty in recruiting good students is that undergraduate majors are declared very early on in South Africa, when students may not yet have a clear idea of the career they want to pursue. This is in contrast to the American system where students specialise after a few years of study.

“When I was a [first year] student, I wanted to have sex, drugs and rock ’n roll,” said Ashwal, who studied in America and only decided on geology when he was 20.

First year students at Wits have to enrol for three years of geology, maths, chemistry and physics for the best chance of postgraduate studies in geosciences.

Published on Vuvuzela online 20 March 2012.

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March 21, 2012

e-Tolls hit a long way from home

By Anina Mumm

Wits students driving their own cars to campus will be paying more for the privilege – especially those who live beyond the borders of Braamfontein.

Vuvuzela calculated the average yearly cost for students driving to Wits with an e-tag: Witsies driving from Benoni will spend R1308, R707.88 from Centurion, R777.48 from Roodepoort and R154.92 from Johannesburg North.  Without the e-tag the prices would be about double.

“Well obviously it requires more money for one to get to varsity and back [home], and in the same sense you have less money to spend so it cuts down on where you can drive. Before, I could go home during lunch but now I have to think twice,” said 2nd year medical student Zain Patel.

But students who rely on public transport will not feel the effects of e-tolling immediately. Taxis and buses are exempt from e-tolling according to the recent budget speech by Pravin Gordhan.

Gordhan had also said the government would subsidise R5.8 billion of Gauteng’s e-toll fees.

“It would be better if petrol was compensated in place of e-tolling”, said Darrel Moodley, 4th year occupational therapy student.

This comes after Tuesday night’s 28c petrol price increase to a record high of R11.05 per litre.

E-tolls were a core issue raised by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in a mass action protest march in Braamfontein on Wednesday.

Photo: Jay Caboz

Former Wits SRC president Bafana Nhlapo was also marching and said: “I’m here against e-tolling because it’s going to affect the poor man on the street because it’s going to cause a rise in basic commodities such as food, water and milk. As much as taxes exempt the poor it’s still going to affect the working class.”

Thousands of protesters marched along Johannesburg central business district and many wore bright red t-shirts with slogans condemning labour brokering, the other focus of Cosatu’s protest.

The crowd started to sing and dance, chanting Juju my president, at the sight of suspended ANC youth league president Julius Malema. Wits workers also joined the march to participate in the nationwide protest against what Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi calls “labour ‘breakers’, not labour brokers”.

A memorandum was handed over outside the Gauteng provincial office where Vavi and Malema addressed the crowds.

“We are here to show solidarity with the workers opposing the e-tolling system and labour brokers. Leadership should listen to the masses,” said Malema.

Published in Vuvuzela, 5th Edition, 9 March 2012 & published on Vuvuzela Online 14 March 2012.

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March 5, 2012

A status update is a status upgrade

By Anina Mumm

Facebook is seen as a social medium for the university “elite” by young South Africans who can’t find work and are not studying, according to a paper presented at a media conference on campus earlier this week.

Wits hosted over 70 international media scholars at Beyond Normative Approaches: Everyday Media Culture in Africa to share and debate their studies on how different people in Africa interact with different kinds of media.

“Facebook was seen as a social network of higher status...”

Facebook was seen as a social network of higher status than Mxit by young people who are unemployed and do not attend university. These are the findings of Marion Walton from the University of Cape Town, Milagros Rivera and TT Sreekumar from the National University of Singapore, who studied 18 to 21-year-old youths in Khayelitsha.

To these youths, the platform used to communicate with their friends can say much about their status and success, or failure.

One research subject said she closed her Facebook account when she wasn’t accepted for university. Another said, “I won’t get on Facebook because I don’t wear Carvela or I do not attend UCT or what…”

Photo: Jay Caboz

Despite being unemployed, these young people use mobile phones to create opportunities for themselves or as distractions from the realities of life. Some run illegal businesses or “hustle” using their phones. Others chat on Mxit until the early hours of the morning instead of going to shebeens.

Mxit was also shown to bridge cultural divides between the apartheid definitions of “coloured” and “black African” in the Eastern Cape. Mxit constructs “new hybrid ways of being which allow one to ‘live both cultures’, or to be ‘Mix’,” according to Alette Schoon from Rhodes University.

Unemployed and uneducated youth face the problem of expensive bandwidth associated with Facebook and Twitter, and regard the media as selfish for saying: “Follow us on Twitter” or “Talk to us on Facebook”.

But university students and graduates, despite having relatively easy access to media and information, do not necessarily participate in the public sphere. This was the conclusion of a study by Tamsin van Tonder, from the University of Johannesburg.

The internet allows for active debate around issues that could influence governance. But she found that more than half of 18 to 35-year-olds in Johannesburg seldom or never engage in debate via tweets, blogs, Facebook posts, or comments sections.

Published in Vuvuzela, 4th Edition, 2 March 2012.

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