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South Africa is known to many Chinese as a country with ample natural resources such as diamonds and gold, but it also has much to offer in the space arena. It demonstrated its latest space technology at the National Pavilion for the South African Space Arena at the 64th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in Beijing from September 23 to 27.
South Africa is among the leading space and aeronautics nations on the African continent, according to Rosemary Mashaba, South Africa's Deputy Ambassador to China. "We have a variety of institutions and programs, which have extensive competencies in the satellite engineering, space exploration, aero structures, avionics and utilization of applications for socio-economic benefits," she said.
Seven South African space sector participants including affiliated governmental departments, science councils, academia and companies took part in the demonstration. Their participation was an initiative of South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
"We hope this event will provide a good opportunity to exhibit their capabilities and enable engagements with the international space community, which could forge relationships in areas of space engineering, science and other related beneficial spheres," said Nomfuneko Majaja, Chief Director of DTI's Advanced Manufacturing Aerospace and Defense Electrotechnical.
More cooperation
The country's major milestone in the development of the national space program is its participation in an international project called Square Kilometer Array (SKA), in which thousands of linked radio-wave receptors will be positioned in Africa and Australia in hopes of clarifying some as-of-yet unanswered questions about the universe, according to Carla Sharpe, Business Development Manager of SKA South Africa.
"Projects like this are very important in developing our skills and human capacity and developing our ability to cooperate with other global partners. The program is also driving forward the technology and the economy of its partner countries," Sharpe said.
Currently, South Africa has joined the ranks of emerging aerospace nations and reached a critical stage in the development of space capabilities, said Dr. Peter Martinez, Chairperson of the South African Council for Space Affairs. "We hope to cooperate with China in the fields of earth observation, space operations, satellite manufacturing, space engineering and human capital development," he said.
Echoing Martinez, Majaja added that cooperation with China in skill and technology development and transfer would help develop South Africa's indigenous space capabilities.
Several South African research institutions and companies joined the exhibition and hoped to attract potential partners in joint research and development. "While the space domain is a new frontier for the African continent, the time is right to market South Africa's strong engineering capability and our culture of cooperation internationally," said Berthold Alheit, General Manager of Denel Spaceteq, part of South Africa's Denel Dynamics Company. "Our capabilities can be applied to the advancement of solving difficult and large engineering problems in the space arena."
The benefit of the space industry is far reaching, and it has a much broader national technological benefit. "Satellite technology is a catalyst for so many other technologies. While practicing space engineering, you create other technologies that can be applied anywhere," said Professor Robert van Zyl, Director of the French South African Institute of Technology at Cape Town-based Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
"The space industry drives the need for innovation, which is important for economic growth, and keeps our country abreast of other countries," Sharpe said.
South African space representatives from affiliated government agencies, science councils, academia and companies with an interest in the space sector attended the event and shared their views with ChinAfrica on South Africa's space-sector progress, challenges to come and the future prospects of international space cooperation.
Nomfuneko Majaja
Chief Director of DTI's Advanced Manufacturing Aerospace and Defense Electrotechnical
What advantages does South Africa have in terms of its space program?
South Africa's capability starts as far back as in the 1960s in the space arena. It's among the leading space and aeronautics nations on the African continent and has a variety of institutions and programs. They have extensive competencies in satellite engineering, space exploration, and space applications for socio-economic benefits.
What are the challenges facing the South African space industry?
The challenges are the high barriers to entry into the global market, which include requirements for high capital outlay, as well as requirements for regulations complying for international standards. Our industry is so small and it's not so coordinated, and it's not so easy for the industry to access finances to get into the industry and compete with other countries. The other important challenge is the skill. We have a big skill gap within the country. So that's why South Africa is cooperating with other countries in the area of skill development.
How can cooperation between China and South Africa address those challenges?
We'd like to have exchange programs with Chinese institutions in skill development. Other areas we'd also like to cooperate with China are in technology development or technology transfer. Sometimes you have to get skills and technology transferred and adapted to your specific environment.
In all of those programs, we'd like to emphasize localization to enhance and develop local capacity. So what would be important is for investment to be part of the joint ventures with South African companies. We'd like to strengthen the local capacities that have been developed over the years. Chinese companies can forge partnerships and joint ventures by investing in South Africa with the already existing African companies, because the main emphasis of South African industrialization is on localization so as to strengthen the local capacity.
We hope the partnership improves the competitive capability of the South African space industry to compete in the global market and ensure economic growth, appropriate investment and job creation.
Dr. Peter Martinez
Chairperson of the South African Council for Space Affairs
How can South Africa cooperate with other BRICS countries in this regard?
We find BRICS an exciting framework to work with our partner countries. All the BRICS countries are spacefaring nations. We have much to gain from the experience of other countries and it's a very good example of South-South cooperation. Within the BRICS framework, China, Russia and India all have access to space, while currently South Africa doesn't have the capability to launch its own satellites to space. The possibility of accessing space through one or more of our BRICS partners is interesting to us. South Africa has a geographical advantage (compared) to other BRICS countries. As it's situated at the southern tip of the African continent, which is an important position to provide ground stations that could support the space missions of the partner countries in BRICS.
What space cooperation programs has South Africa conducted with other African countries?
The emerging space actors in Africa include Algeria in North Africa, Nigeria in West Africa, Kenya in East Africa and South Africa in Southern Africa. We recognize the importance of cooperation with other countries, as most of the challenges we experience in Africa can be addressed effectively through the space platform when you have a global view. We are partnering with other African countries to build this African Resource Management Satellite Constellation.
We will work on making other African countries more capable users of space technology, to meet their needs in important issues such as disaster management, food and water security and environmental management, and gradually to use our respective capabilities for capacity building in those other countries, include training and technology transfer.
What are your expectations for future China-Africa cooperation in the space sector?
Considering currently where we are in our stage of development in space technology, our biggest need at this time is in the area of capacity building and training. I can see that one area of potential cooperation could be in the training of future space scientists, exposing them to different communities of practice, different ways of doing things, different cultures of engineering, and so on, which will be very useful. Of course, China has very mature and developed space capabilities. So I think there are certainly important potential areas for cooperation in space. | 
