A leading astronomer who had been suspended from his post as director of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town has been reinstated following a disciplinary hearing.

South Africa’s main funding agency, the National Research Foundation (NRF), removed Phil Charles from his post for murky reasons last month.

In a story at the time, Nature reported that the affair was linked to claims that Charles shared details with academic colleagues about where the operations centre for South Africa’s new MeerKAT radio telescope might be based. MeerKAT is a prototype for a powerful radio telescope called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which South Africa and Australia are both bidding to host.

That claim, which came from sources familiar with the affair, was flatly denied by the NRF.

In a rather recondite statement on 10 February, the NRF said:

The matter has nothing to do with the scientific competency of the individual concerned, the science operations at SAAO, the SALT partnership arrangements or the future of the SAAO. All these organizations are operating as normal and are not affected by these events; the matter also has no bearing on the South African SKA Project or the placement of the MeerKAT operational centre.

So what was Charles actually charged with? In a statement this afternoon, the NRF said:

It must be noted that the NRF had initiated this process with an intention of correcting perceived transgressions in the management and governance processes within SAAO. The NRF believes that the issues that gave rise to these proceedings may still exist and that they still require be dealt with [sic].

So that’s that cleared up.

For Charles, the news is obviously good. As the statement says:

The Chairperson found Prof Charles to be not guilty on all charges.

As for what those charges were – and why Charles is not guilty of them – we’ll have the full story for you on Monday.

Image: artist’s impression of the 80 dishes of the MeerKAT radio telescope / Jeroen de Boer