LOUIS TRICHARDT – The Zoutpansberger and Mirror group of newspapers this week tackled yet another challenge, that of creating more jobs and at the same time provide protection for some 20 000 readers who want to witness the solar eclipse on December 4 this year.

The project is co-sponsored by the Musina and Thulamela municipalities. The first part of the project entails the manufacturing of more than 20 000 eclipse viewers for insertion into the Zoutpansberger and Mirror editions of November 29.

According to Anton van Zyl, the project co-ordinator, it all started when a special solar eclipse supplement scheduled to appear on November 29, was discussed. The idea was to purchase eclipse viewers that could be inserted into each newspaper. The newspaper is the ideal medium for distributing the viewers into even the most remote villages.

"We quickly realised that the price of the viewers commercially available would simply make such a project impossible," says Anton. On average the price of the viewers was in excess of R5 each. "We then came across the Karoo Hoogland project in Sutherland where they manufacture the eclipse viewers as part of a poverty relief programme," he says. These viewers, even though very simple in design, are a lot more affordable and give excellent protection against the sun's harmful rays.

The idea of using local labour to manufacture the viewers quickly sprang to mind. The only problem was to get hold of the various components to manufacture the viewers. The printing and die-cutting processes were not difficult as these could be done locally. The headache centred around the special film through which the sun must be viewed. The film had to conform to the necessary specifications and had to give exceptional protection against the sun's harmful rays. The preferred type, black polymer, is specially imported and is by far the most expensive component in the whole process.

"The Musina and Thulamela municipalities kindly agreed to sponsor the printing cost as well as the cost of the film," says Anton. The newspaper group agreed to sponsor the cost of the labour as well as the infrastructure to manufacture the viewers.

If all goes according to plan production will start on Monday and should last for approximately two weeks.

"From what we could establish, less than a million eclipse viewers had been ordered countrywide a month ago. This poses a serious health risk as millions of people, especially in the rural areas, will look into the sun without any protection at all. Twenty thousand viewers in our distribution area might not sound like a lot compared to the need, but at least it is a step in the right direction," says Anton.