THE town of Sutherland in the Karoo is to play host of a R100-million telescope due to scan the galaxies, Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Minister Ben Ngubane announced on Thursday. Ngubane said the telescope will be the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and will enable the country to remain internationally competitive in the field of astronomy. Ngubane gave the go-ahead for the project, dubbed Salt (Southern African Large Telescope), after signing a science and technology agreement with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Wiszniewski in the morning. In terms of the agreement, Poland will donate R15-million towards Salt, bringing the total figure of international contributions to R45-million. The South African government has committed another R50-million.