As the Fourth Industrial Revolution rapidly blurs the lines between the physical, digital and biological spaces, South Africa has a unique opportunity to influence the impact on its economy to the benefit of society as a whole.
Despite the next revolution delivering significant advances, such as advanced robotics, Big Data, augmented reality and the Internet of Things (IoT), fears of artificial intelligence, a widening inequality gap, automation and extensive job losses and the redundancy of jobs, are growing.
However, with the African country still in the early stages of the technological revolution, there is still an opportunity to shape the developments to the nation’s advantage and enhance job creation, skills development, and the quality of life and education through these technologies.
“If we do not address it from the very beginning – from government and private-sector points of view – it can slip away from us,” says Council for Scientific and Industrial Research research and development strategy manager Dr Daniel Visser, noting that the country is still in the “very early stages”, which could enable it to embrace and adopt the revolution with a peoplecentric approach.
He told delegates at a Siemens Dialogues Series event that South Africa’s adoption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution should not be approached with a view that it will be replacing jobs, but rather augmenting jobs to make them safer and easier, and leveraging technology for tasks that are unsafe for humans.
“We cannot do industrial revolution the same way that Japan or Germany is doing it – they have different contexts. We have to do the Fourth Industrial Revolution for South Africa,” he adds, assuring that it is not “some Eurocentric strategy” being followed.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, while a “complex beast”, is a set of paradigms emerging from evolving technology and South Africa has the opportunity to decide on its own implementation.
“We will take good practice from Germany or Japan, but we will adapt it to what South Africa needs to do and we will do it in such a way that everybody is included, and that is what we must plan for,” Visser says.
“We cannot let this [revolution] happen to us – we have to make it happen for us.”
“There is no place to hide from connectivity. South Africa cannot step aside and not participate. We need to actively participate and shape South African industries to be more competitive in the global market,” says Siemens Southern and Eastern Africa CEO Sabine Dall’Omo.
“It is vital, however, that business, society and government participate to make real what the industrial revolution will look like for South Africa,” she says, adding that it is about more than just driving business, but rather maximising the benefits for society in the South African context.
The “danger” is the country is at a crossroads in terms of digital skills.
“If people do not have basic digital skills, we are in danger of losing out,” she says, noting that the speed of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the disruption of every aspect of business and social life make it difficult to keep up.