Early hominid find prompts Hanekom to call for palaeosciences funding
TAMAR KAHNDeputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom yesterday called on the government to put more money into the palaeosciences, saying the field had been badly neglected.
“The amount of money we have allocated to palaeosciences has been hopelessly too little,” he said at a media breakfast to promote the 2-million-year- old Australopithecus sediba fossils announced by Wits professor Lee Berger earlier this month. Berger has described the fossils as belonging to a new species of early hominid that may be the ancestor to our genus Homo.
While the government had lent its support to big astronomy projects such as the Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland and an ambitious bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope, it had not paid much attention to the palaeosciences, Hanekom previously told Business Day. “Palaeosciences need to be revitalised,” Hanekom said in an interview shortly before Berger announced his discovery of several Australopithecus sediba skeletons and the remains of more than 25 animal species in the remains of a cave in the Cradle of Humankind, near Johannesburg.
Hanekom said persuading politicians to fund fossil research was a tough sell compared to raising money for astronomy projects such as the SKA, the world’s biggest radio telescope.
“Astronomy is like military expenditure: some of the skills can be exported, there are local manufacturing jobs, and new technologies are developed. Not too much comes out of the research around bones ,” he said .
The Department of Science and Technology had allocated R10m to palaeosciences in fiscal year 2009- 10, with another R12m earmarked for the Institute for Human Evolution , he said. By contrast, the government allocated R575m for space science, most of it for its bid to host the SKA and build a pilot project called MeerKAT.
Hanekom, who has been delegated responsibility for palaeosciences by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor , said he had ordered a review of SA’s strategy in the field. SA’s research and development strategy, approved by the cabinet in 2002, said the government should give special attention to fields in which it had a geographic advantage. These included human palaeontology, astronomy, Antarctica, and SA’s unique flora and fauna.
Hanekom said he had established a task team to review the African Origins Strategy, which was drafted in 2005, and expected work to be completed by the end of the year. The review would assess the legislative framework governing palaeoscience research, human capital, and the way the field was funded.
Hanekom said that government funding for research into the palaeosciences, which was channelled through the Palaeontological Scientific Trust, should in future be routed via the National Research Fund in line with other disciplines.
The review was also expected to consider whether it was necessary to devise special laws to protect areas containing fossils, he said.
The juvenile Australopithecus sediba skeleton is on public display at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town until Saturday.
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