[FPSPACE] South Africa launches its 1st space policy

[Keith Gottschalk]

        At last I am at liberty to tell all of  you! It's hard for us
garrulous academics to keep our mouths shut, even if the civil service
types told us that gently, compared to the court martial types. 

     Throughout last year I was serving (part-time, unpaid of course 
:)   :)  on the Technical and Policy Committee of the statutory Space
Affairs Council of South Africa (SACSA), situated in our Department of
Trade & Industry, and cooperating with our Department of Science &
Technology. We helped draft both a national space policy, and a space
strategy. I was working with Peter Martinez,  an astronomer who is also
our COPUOS delegate. Once that was done, these were escalated upwards to
the cabinet minister & his staff. We were told to treat the drafts as
confidential until the Minister issued his final version for the public.
I am now on the Advocacy Committee of SACSA.

     We had hoped to simultaneously launch South Africa's 1st space
policy, 1st space strategy, and our national space agency. But last week
we were briefed that since national treasury has not yet seen our space
strategy, "it is only a piece of paper" until they have indicated what
they can allocate a budget to, so there was no point in yet releasing
that.

    The launch of our national space agency has been postponed until
after our general election. We are now in full mud-slinging season &
mode for the next two months! The incoming administration will during
the second half of 2009 appoint a board for this, & our space agency
will later start work.

    At last Friday's launch, our current Minister of Trade & Industry,
Mandisi Mphalwa, released the documents:

* South Africa's National Space Policy (20pp)
* Domestic & International Regulatory & Strategic Frameworks for SA's
Space Activities (13pp)
* The International Space Landscape (13pp)
* Space Science & Technology for Sustainable Development (18pp)
* Public & Private Sector Space Activities in South Africa (17pp)

    To put what follows into perspective, South Africa is a third world
country with no oil windfall. We calculate that South Africa's space
industry employs some 180 people with an annual turnover of the order
US$20 million. This is mostly in microsat manufacture, and in remote
sensing & GIS products.

     The passages in our national space policy of most interest to
FPSPACE are:

page 7:  "South Africa is committed to developing and maintaining a
robust and appropriate set of space capabilities, services and products
to support national priorities....South Africa is committed to being a
responsible user of the space environment...."

page 8:  "Promote the development of an appropriate and competitive
domestic commercial space sector in order to provide the industrial base
to meet the naton's need for space technology."  "Promote improved
cooperation with other nations in the mutually beneficial peaceful uses
of outer space."

page 12: "Assured access to space will be another critical capability
for the South African space programme. To ensure the capability to
launch space systems as & when required, South Africa shall pursue,
through commercial means or strategic partnerships, at least two
independent, comparable lines of access to space."

    Hopefully, all these documents in full will be uploaded in days
onto our national space secretariat website, www.space.gov.za   When we
discover what, during this year of global recession, our national
treasury can agree to budget for, we will let you know.

with warm regards to all, Keith.