South African Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has emphasized the importance to South Africa of its collaboration with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). He was delivering the keynote address at the Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics 2023 Conference, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

He pointed out that the South Africa-CERN Programme, launched in 2008, now embraced ten South African institutions. These included previously disadvantaged universities, such as the University of KwaZulu-Natal (his own alma mater, he noted).

Although the country had had its own and “long-standing” focus on physics, this international collaboration had strengthened South Africa’s capabilities in the discipline. This collaboration was also essential for the success of the country’s programme to develop critical mass in scientific research.

As an example of a local initiative for which expertise in particle physics was very important, he cited the South African Gamma-Ray Astronomy Programme (SA-GAMMA). This is a collaboration between a number of South African universities and research organisations, namely full-members North-West University, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of the Free State, the University of Johannesburg, and the South African Astronomical University. The University of Namibia is an associate member.

Nzimande explained that SA-GAMMA coordinated South African involvement in international gamma-ray astronomy and high-energy astrophysics programmes. These comprised the Namibia-based High Energy Stereoscopic System, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, the planned ground-based next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array and the Mediterranean-based KM3NeT Neutrino Observatory, (which was located on the Mediterranean Sea bed, some 40 km from the French port city of Toulon, at a depth of about 2 400 m and which was currently under construction).  

He affirmed that the future development of SA-GAMMA was dependent on technology transfer from CERN (which made great use of gamma-rays in its ALICE experiment, for example). Such technology transfer would take place through iThemba LABS (which is South Africa’s particle-accelerator research institution).

“The SA-CERN Programme has produced very good results,” he affirmed. The development of particle physics in South Africa contributed to government’s objective of using scientific knowledge to build a more inclusive and humane world.