4IR: So where does South Africa currently stand?
With the rapid technological developments in the production processes, it is no doubt that we are entering a new era of the Industrial Revolution — The Fourth Industrial Revolution to be specific. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a confluence of cyber, physical, and biological technologies. Some seeing it as a critical turning point for humankind as automation will increase productivity and efficiency, however, a study from 2018 by Accenture concluded that approximately 6 million jobs in South Africa are at risk of being lost to automation by 2025. This points to a possibility of mass unemployment and increasing inequalities and disruptions across all industries.
The question then is, so what is South Africa’s strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution? In Prof Tshilidzi Marwala’s book — Closing the Gap — the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa, Prof Marwala takes us through a journey from the first Industrial Revolution not only to where we are today but also into the future.
This is a well-written and captivating book touching on not only the technicalities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution but also the long-term socio-economic impacts the 4IR will have in South Africa and the African continent. And to add icing to the cake it is written in a digestible tone from an African perspective and simplifies most of the technical jargon that is thrown around in society and media today.
The book is divided into four parts with a total of twenty-six chapters touching on the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the industry, data, business, and society. Below are a few of my highlights from this book.
1. Legislation
Prof Marwala touches on the readiness of the South African legislation to advance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution citing how businesses like Airbnb and Uber which are domiciled in the USA but are operating in South Africa and are not subjected to the South African tax laws since the South African legislation is not adapted to the latest developments in Fourth Industrial Revolution. To remedy this mismatch, Prof Marwala suggests that parliament will need to look at our legislation and amend it in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution but before this can happen, members of parliament will need to be Fourth Industrial Revolution and science-literate — the lack of literacy could not be more evident than when the deputy President stumbled over a question on 4IR in parliament when he was asked to define Fourth Industrial Revolution in simple terms.
2. Investing in Human Capital
Looking at the Human Capital Index (HCI) figures from the world bank, South Africa’s HCI is just over 0.4 similar to lower-income group countries like Malawi and Benin although South Africa is categorized as an upper-middle-income country. What this means is that while South Africa has many economic opportunities, the majority of its citizens are not equipped to take full advantage of them. Considering the current record-high levels of unemployment, we have witnessed recently, coupled with the brain drain of the last few years, investment in human capital is not only a logical move but also a very critical one to ensure that South Africa takes full advantage of the opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
3. Digital records / Consolidation of data
Currently, there is no national database for medical records in South Africa. If one falls ill in the far north in Limpopo province and requires a CT scan and is later transferred to another public hospital let us say in Gauteng, a similar CT scan will have to be done since there is no practical transfer of data from one public hospital to another. Assuming a brilliant team of South African machine learning and AI engineers want to build an application to diagnose diseases early from scanning the available medical images produced from the scans the team would need to have access to all scans taken at the government facilities. Since there is no single databank that houses all the scans or images taken at government hospitals the AI application will not be as effective compared to one built by a similar team of Chinese engineers because the Chinese medical records are integrated. It is therefore of paramount importance that there is a consolidation of data within the South African state for us to be competitive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This is definitely a must-have book, reading this book left me with mixed emotions about the prospects of South Africa given the current situation. On a global scale we are indeed lagging however in the context of the African continent we are almost at the forefront, leading the pack. As it stands the average age in South Africa is 27 years, hence the hope of this country is in the youth since the ability to innovate is one of South Africa’s greatest strengths as the country has a strong culture of innovation along with a sophisticated financial sector that supports entrepreneurial activity.
In conclusion, we are indeed entering uncharted waters, facing challenges never been faced before and due to the complexity of the challenges ahead, it is only logical that those who do not know should not lead.
Thank you for taking your time to read this, I hope this was worthwhile.
