Deputy Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Zuko Godlimpi said South Africa must build local digital capabilities, skills and enterprises to ensure technology supports industrialisation, job creation and inclusive growth.
Speaking at GovTech at the Durban ICC on Tuesday, Godlimpi said technology is no longer a peripheral component of economic development.
“Digital technologies have become an essential part of how economies produce, trade, communicate, deliver public services, create businesses and participate in global value chains,” he said.
“The digital economy is therefore not simply another sector of the economy. It is becoming one of the fundamental platforms through which economic activity takes place.”
Godlimpi said the South African government recognised the digital economy as an important enabler of growth, development and competitiveness.
He said technological change had transformed the way people lived, worked, learned, communicated, transacted and accessed services.
“Our responsibility as government is to ensure that South Africa does not merely consume technologies developed elsewhere, but develops the capabilities, enterprises, skills and industrial base necessary to participate meaningfully in this new economy,” he said.
He said this was consistent with the vision of the National Development Plan 2030, which envisages an ecosystem of digital networks, services, applications, content and devices integrated into South Africa’s economic and social fabric.
The vision was also reflected in the final draft of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies’ ICT and Digital Economy Masterplan, he said.
The masterplan aims to ensure that South Africans are digitally empowered to create and participate in technology-enabled opportunities that promote inclusiveness, employment and economic transformation across cities, towns and provinces.
Digitalisation and industrialisation
Godlimpi said the central question was not only how quickly South Africa could adopt new technologies.
“We must also ask what economic opportunities these technologies create, which South African enterprises are positioned to benefit from them, what capabilities we need to develop locally, and how we can use public policy to ensure that digital transformation contributes to industrialisation and broad-based economic participation,” he said.
He said the government had invested in institutional and policy foundations to support innovation, science, technology and industrial modernisation.
“Digital transformation does not respect departmental boundaries,” Godlimpi said. “Innovation in government requires collaboration between departments. Innovation in industry requires collaboration between companies, universities, research institutions and government.”
He said social-impact innovation should place citizens and communities at the centre of the process.
A persistent challenge was moving ideas from conception to prototypes, commercial products and sustainable businesses, he said.
“South Africa has no shortage of talented innovators, developers, engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers and young people with ideas capable of addressing real problems,” Godlimpi said.
“What remains a challenge is moving these ideas consistently from conception, to prototype, to commercial product, and ultimately to sustainable businesses that create jobs and contribute to economic growth.”
South Africa’s digitalisation was taking place against the backdrop of weak economic performance and what he described as premature de-industrialisation.
“We therefore cannot approach digital transformation as though it exists separately from the broader challenge of rebuilding and strengthening our productive economy,” he said.
Godlimpi said the dtic’s Industrial Development Strategy sought to reverse de-industrialisation and stimulate sustainable economic growth.
The strategy was anchored around three pathways: decarbonisation, diversification and digitalisation.
“Digitalisation, in particular, requires us to strengthen digital infrastructure and connectivity, foster data and innovation ecosystems, advance digital skills development and promote the adoption of digital technologies,” he said.
“These interventions must reinforce the broader objectives of industrialisation, rather than operate in isolation from them.”
Skills, jobs and public services
Godlimpi said South Africa had technological capabilities in areas including mobile software, security software and electronic banking services.
He said technology could replace certain tasks while also creating new tasks, occupations, industries and opportunities.
“The objective should therefore not be to resist technological progress. Rather, our objective must be to ensure that workers and enterprises are equipped to participate in an economy in which technology and human capability increasingly work together,” he said.
He said the future of public-service delivery was closely connected to digital transformation.
Local systems and applications could improve how the government interacted with citizens, how services were accessed and how information was managed.
“These solutions can also create opportunities for South African technology companies to develop intellectual property, build businesses and expand into other African markets.”
Godlimpi said digital innovation could help address unemployment..
yogashen.pillay@nationalmg.co.za