"This event has, in fact, allowed us to showcase African astronomy on the global stage. And we are convinced that this will go a long way in positioning Africa as a high-tech destination for astronomy sciences and facilities. We also are very hopeful that this will help us in our plans as South Africa, together with the rest of the continent, to promote what one can call astro-tourism into our country and the continent as a whole," Nzimande says.
"We should do community engagement. It is nice to distinguish between doing public outreach and well-structured community engagement [...]. However, with community engagement, you want to carry the entire people you are dealing with through to making, well, either find a new knowledge, getting more deeply involved in thinking more about astronomy [...]. More importantly the powers that be. People who make decisions for them to see the need to keep the curiosity and young people going by funding astronomy. Because if you can hold down the interest of young people and keep them curious, they may not always become astronomers, but they will stay in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics]," Chibueze stresses.