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Astronomy in post-apartheid South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Patricia Ann Whitelock
Patricia Ann Whitelock*
Affiliation:
South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, Observatory 7935, South Africa email: paw@saao.ac.za National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme, Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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Abstract

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Astronomy was one of the sciences earmarked for major support by South Africa's first democratically elected government in 1994. This was a very remarkable decision for a country with serious challenges in poverty, health and unemployment, but shows something of the long term vision of the new government. In this paper I give one astronomer's perception of the reasons behind the decision and some of its consequences.

Keywords

AfricaeducationdevelopmentSALTSKA
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S260: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture , January 2009 , pp. 587 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

O'Donoghue, et al. 2006, MNRAS, 372, 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD 2007, OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy: South Africa 2007, OECD PublishingGoogle Scholar