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SumbandilaSat Programme has cost South Africans R90 million
Public money should not be used to prop up unsuccessful ventures
DA believes withdrawing funding would not compromise our technological and scientific capabilities


Cabinet must seriously re-consider its decision in principle earlier this year to buy the majority stake in commercial satellite manufacturer SunSpace. SumbandilaSat, its micro-satellite that was launched a year ago, has permanent damage, compromising its capability to deliver.

To date, I have been reliably informed, the SumbandilaSat programme has cost the South African public R90-million. If it cost R26-million to build and R12-million to launch, this means that about R52-million has been spent in commissioning costs and trying to correct damage caused during the launch.

But Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor has dodged the opportunity to be transparent with the public about the actual costs of the programme. Last year she promised Parliament that she would provide a cost justification of the investment in the satellite by mid-2010. She failed to do so. If, as the Minister states, she takes great care in responding to oral and written questions and understands the importance of Parliament's role in holding the executive to account, I fail to understand why she has not been frank with Parliament on the costs of SumbandilaSat. This indicates that there must be something to hide about the perpetual problems this satellite is experiencing.

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the spirit of South Africa's space programme and initiatives it does not see why public money should be invested in a satellite manufacturing company that has been unable to deliver a robust working vehicle. We believe that it would be more cost-efficient to buy satellites from our trading partners or experienced strategic partners in our space programmes.

South Africa currently receives earth observation information from seven satellites - of which the crippled SumbandilaSat is one - so the nation will always be dependent on other providers for this service, and I suggest we keep it that way and focus our space engineering skills elsewhere.

SumbandilaSat is a micro-satellite developed as a ‘technology demonstrator' to test our capability at building low-cost satellites. Compared to other satellites of a similar size, it is indeed a cheaper product. But the cost compromises made during construction meant that some of the components have permanently failed because they were not robust enough.

Other components were simply inappropriate for the task, unable to handle the needs of programmers on the ground, especially data capture and transfer. Some of the problems have been fixed, but about half the capability of the satellite is lost.

Three universities - Stellenbosch University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University - were promised the use of SumbandilaSat for various experiments, but they have not yet been able to start them, even a year after launch.

The satellite provides a mere 10 minutes of transmission time per day, taking it over two weeks to process usable images. This does not inspire confidence in the promised real-time disaster management that is supposed to come out of this project.

We at the DA believe deeply in scientific innovation and technological development. SunSpace is no doubt an innovative company with impressive technological talent, but it should remain a private company and compete in global markets without being propped-up by the State.