A year ago, South Africa launched its satellite, SumbandilaSat, amid much fanfare. This pioneering craft heralded our bright future as a space-faring nation.
But it's a crippled ship. Cost compromises made during construction meant that some of the components have permanently failed because they were not robust enough. Some of the problems have been fixed, but about half the promised capability of the satellite is lost.
Three universities that were promised the use of SumbandilaSat have not yet been able to start their experiments - a year after launch.
The total cost of the programme is, I've been told, about R90 million and about R52 million spent on getting the craft to work after launch. These are expensive school, fees, particularly as all we get is 10 minutes worth of information a day to compile images that take 15 days of processing to become useable.
A year ago, the hon Minister of Science and Technology promised to provide a cost justification on building our own satellites. When she did not deliver on this promise, I sent her a question and her response was a smokescreen.
She could not give concrete details of return on investment. She chose not to give figures proving that it is cheaper to make our own satellite than it is to acquire the earth observation information from the six satellite providers we currently use.
Cabinet wants taxpayers to become the major shareholders of the satellite's manufacturer, SunSpace. I suggest that, instead, our money be better used in developing our unique global competitive capabilities. [Applause.]