NRF Annual Report 2018

PART A: STRATEGIC OVERVIEW
4.2 Income per business unit
The total income per business unit is shown in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1: INCOME PER BUSINESS UNIT
Programme
Business unit
2016/17
R’000
2017/18
R’000
1 Corporate support 159 660 94 088
2 South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement 90 853 91 263
3 Research and Innovation Support and Advancement, and THRIP 2 835 176 2 937 317
4 iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences 240 492 251 995
4 South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity 30 921 33 296
4 South African Environmental Observation Network 35 802 77 770
4 National Zoological Gardens of South Africa 119 151 120 169
4 South African Astronomical Observatory 85 029 92 161
4 SARAO Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory 28 694 32 160
4 SARAO Square Kilometre Array project 875 342 996 493
Total income 4 501 120 4 726 712
4.2.1 Expenditure Trend
As depicted in Figure 9, there was an increase of 5% in the
total expenditure, from R4 514m in 2016/17 to R4 730m
in 2017/18, attributable mainly to increased spending on
grants and bursaries at RISA as well as a performance
bonus provision for the SKA project.
Capital expenditure increased due to the conclusion of
the land acquisition programme in Carnarvon to create
an astronomy reserve for the SKA SA project. Operating
expenditure decreased as the prior year included a large
investment in sealing the road in Carnarvon.
Increased research funding expenditure of 4.5% includes
mainly the following programmes:
• R80m re-prioritised from SARChI resulted in additional
funding allocated for human capacity development
(HCD); and
• R72m to complete THRIP.
The increase in employees’ remuneration is attributed to
the general salary increase at an average of 6.5% and a
performance bonus for SKA project employees, based on
the successful completion of MeerKAT and the first station
of the African VLBI Network (AVN) in Ghana.
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NRF Annual Report 2017/18