By Dr Adrian Tiplady, South African SKA Project Office, Johannesburg

South Africa's Astronomy Geographic Advantage (AGA) Bill took one step closer to being signed into law on Thursday, 13th September 2007, as it was approved and adopted by the National Assembly of the country. The last few months have seen a series of public hearings and stakeholder meetings to ensure that the bill is given the appropriate powers to ensure the protection of Astronomy Advantage Areas in South Africa's Northern Cape Province. These meetings, which led to case studies being undertaken with a number of operators of wireless communications networks in the Northern Cape, were very fruitful. They sought to find feasible solutions to re-engineer existing wireless communication infrastructure to be compatible with the operation of a major radio astronomy facility, as well as prevent the establishment of further infrastructure and other activities that could be detrimental to astronomy.

The AGA Bill aims to protect astronomy facilities across a wide range of wavelengths, from radio to optical and gamma-ray. This could see the establishment of frequency dependent protection areas hundreds of kilometres in extent. It is only through the excellent co-operation and support of the major stakeholders in South Africa that the progression of the AGA bill has been relatively smooth, and generally accepted as a necessity to protect South Africa's natural astronomical advantage.