South Africa has revealed the value of its commitments to the current, preconstruction, phase of the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, which will be jointly hosted by the country and by Australia. The SKA project is being driven by the international SKA Organisation, based in the UK.

The commitments are in the form of both cash and contributions in kind. The South African contribution for the current phase is €4-million in cash and €12-million in kind, for a total value of €16-million.

In comparison, Australia’s contribution to the SKA preconstruction phase is €20.7-million, divided into €5.8-million in cash and €14.9-million in kind. (This despite the fact that Australia will host the smaller part of the SKA and South Africa the larger part.)

In total, all the member States of the SKA Organisation have so far committed €23.4-million in cash to the preconstruction phase. Contributions in kind are expected to exceed €90-million.

These figures were released by the Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom, in a written reply to a Parliamentary question from Congress of the People MP Ms SK Plaatjie. He pointed out that the National Research Foundation had been granted R1.1-billion in the 2003/2004 and 2011/2012 financial years for expenditures related to South Africa’s bid to host the SKA. These funds had come from both current and capital budgets.

In addition, the country has allotted some R2-billion in the medium term for MeerKAT and the SKA. MeerKAT will be South Africa’s 64-dish precursor radio telescope array which will be built in the Karoo region by 2016.

MeerKAT will subsequently be incorporated into Phase 1 of the SKA. Of the SKA Phase 1 dishes, 190 will be in the Karoo and 60 in Western Australia.