A partnership agreement between Cisco and South Africa's department of science and technology (DST), will see the networking technology firm invest more than R60 million towards the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

Vernon Thaver, chief technology officer at Cisco South Africa said R50 million of the investment would go towards building a new centre for broadband communication at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in the Eastern Cape.

The centre is expected to conduct pioneering research around optical fibre data transport for the SKA project.

Thaver also noted that R9 million would go towards building a SKA project data centre.

In a statement DST minister Naledi Pandor said the broadband centre would play a critical role in undertaking appropriate research to provide broadband technology solutions to South Africa.

"The centre is strongly aligned with the DST's ICT research and development and human capacity development objectives. It is also aligned with the National Broadband Policy for South Africa, which aims to ensure universal access to reliable, affordable and secure broadband infrastructure and services by 2020, and to stimulate sustainable uptake and usage," said the minister.

On Wednesday Cisco confirmed that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the DST in respect to the SKA project.

Cisco will support the SKA project through the MoU with the DST based on its Research and Development, Innovation and Implementation (RDI & I) ICT framework.

According to officials the MoU is a strategic investment that prioritises the country's transformation, skills development and technology innovation.

Randy Pond, senior vice president for operations, processes and systems at Cisco said his company will be the technology sponsor of the SKA project.

He explained that the era of technology innovation and growth, the Internet of Everything, and big data projects are significant opportunities for emerging markets like South Africa to leverage technology as a platform for socio and economic transformation.

The SKA project resonates with the DNA of Cisco, he also noted.

"Strategically partnering with the DST to support the SKA project is a key milestone for Cisco not in South Africa but globally as it represents one of the largest single investment that Cisco has made in any one project to date," said Pond.

He added, "Our goal is to take on the role as long term strategic adviser to organisations and governments around the world in order to demonstrate how technology innovation can drive sustainable growth and economic prosperity."

According to Cisco the investment will comprise of four key elements namely a Cisco Net Academy and Knowledge Centre (CKC) in the Northern Cape to help local community members develop basic and intermediate ICT and networking skills.

Additionally, a optical transport research in partnership with NMMU which includes a multi-million dollar, state of the art laboratory facility as well as direct access to key expert resources.

The donation of a data centre laboratory and equipment to the SKA project to enable testing and validation of the central signal processing (CSP) architectural and technical specification requirements.

The fourth element is a Cisco TelePresence system donation to SKA South Africa and its key partners sites, Rhodes University and NMMU.

The SKA is the world's most powerful radio telescope project shared between Australia and South Africa. The telescope is planned to be capable of scanning the skies 10,000 times faster and with 50 times the sensitivity of any other telescope.

And in South Africa the SKA will be hosted in the remote town of Carnavon, Northern Cape.