The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, has announced the appointment of Dr Sandile Malinga as the CEO of the newly launched South African National Space Agency (SANSA), a position which he has been caretaking since January 2010. Pandor welcomed the move by Cabinet, saying "The appointment of Dr Malinga as CEO gives the Agency the necessary impetus to begin its work in earnest. As the caretaker CEO, he demonstrated his efficiency and capability to run the Agency, and we are now looking forward to seeing the Agency flourishing."
Dr Malinga, who hails originally from Soweto, did his first degree at the University of Swaziland and then enrolled for the two-year BSc Honours programme in Physics & Electronics at Rhodes in 1991. He went on to an MSc in 1995 and a PhD in 2001 focusing on meteor physics, with the distinction of being the first black South African to obtain a PhD in space science. He also commenced his working life at Rhodes, taking up a position as a Temporary Lecturer and assisting with lab work and tutorials.
Fellow researchers remember him as a motivated and excellent student, and expected him to do great things.
In 2002, Dr Malinga joined the University of Natal and subsequently became the Dean’s Assistant at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), where he was responsible for the Science and Agriculture student academic support programmes. In 2007, he was appointed the Manager (later Managing Director) of the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO), co-incidentally now headed up by another old Rhodian, Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell. He is a member of the South African Council for Space Affairs (SACSA), the national Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP).
Asked by the Financial Mail during an interview whether a developing country such as South Africa needs a space agency, Dr Malinga answered unequivocally: “Yes. For a number of reasons. More and more, space science and technology is permeating everything we do. In SA it will be used for environment and natural resource monitoring and management — for instance, of our water resources; urban and rural planning; innovation; and economic development.”
Dr Malinga finds himself heading up an extremely important growth initiative for the country. The establishment of the South African National Space Agency and the development of an industrial base for space-related infrastructure is part of the government’s Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP), which will focus on key areas to boost the country’s financial capacity and which will create up to 2.4 million jobs by 2020.
Prof Jonas of the Physics and Electronics Department describes Dr Malinga as “a fantastic ambassador for Rhodes” and says he looks forward to ongoing interaction with him in the future.
Photo courtesy of Financial Mail