As we celebrate the success of our national cricket and rugby teams, let us not overlook a few exceptional successes closer to home

As we celebrate the success of our national cricket and rugby teams, let us not overlook a few exceptional successes closer to home.

With all eyes on the World Cup most people would have missed the two NASA planes touching down in Cape Town last week, both due to be deployed in the service of a groundbreaking US-SA scientific collaboration. NASA and several other heavyweight partners have teamed up with South African scientists – about 150 of them – in a study one of the world’s greatest biodiversity hotspots, the Greater Cape Floristic Region.

The NASA planes will survey the floristic region using high-tech aerial photography that measures many bands beyond the human visible range. Their results will add to a massive database which also includes field observations, satellite imagery, and even bioacoustic information such as bird and frog call recordings.

It’s a remarkable project that illustrates South Africa’s world class scientific infrastructure, a sometimes overlooked asset. Our tertiary institutions are incubators of progress and innovation, and the NASA collaboration is a case in point.

Project findings will be hugely beneficial, not only for the regional economy but for our collective understanding of climate change and natural systems.

And Cape Town is home to another unfolding success story in the form of a locally-designed racing yacht that has spawned a busy production line at Cape Performance Sailing in Capricorn Park involving dozens of new jobs. The Cape31 has fast become a popular export to racing enthusiasts worldwide. The team is on to hull #72.

One remarkable feature of the new design is that it can be packed into a container in just three hours, allowing owners to dispatch it to their preferred location.

The boat is one of many due to be exhibited at the boatica Cape Town Boat Show from October 27—29. Local boat builders export nearly 300 boats a year and employ around 6 000 people in a sector worth around R3.2 billion annually.

While our sporting heroes overseas no doubt deserve heaps of praise, let us not forget the men and women making us proud and keeping us afloat here at home.
 

John Lawson
CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce & Industry