Tag: digital economy

The Presidential Commission Report on the 4th Industrial Revolution makes several strategic recommendations, but it needs to be followed by agile policy and regulation. The Presidential Commission on the 4th Industrial Revolution (the Commission) was tasked with drawing up a strategy to enable South Africa to participate fully in the fourth industrial revolution (the 4IR). Its report was published on 23 October 2020.

With the Black Friday shopping frenzy around the corner, the digital economy this year is expected to receive an enormous boost as many people will want to avoid crowds and take their shopping online. After a difficult year marked by severe disruptions and decreased demand, businesses will also be relying on this period to make up for losses due to the pandemic.

Retailers are transforming their digital capabilities to attract new customers and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving industry. The global pandemic has shown us the importance of being able to quickly shift with changes in the environment, for example, enabling contactless payments, supporting a remote workforce, and pivoting to entirely new business models.

Internet access has come a long way from the R28,000 it cost for a 256kbps connection in 1995. Even prior to the lockdown, almost 500,000 homes and more than 114,000 business premises were connected to fibre according to FTTX Council research from the end of June 2019. Of course, having high-speed access does not necessarily solve all problems.

The paper details competition and regulatory issues in the South African digital economy and sets out the Commission's intended strategic actions in relation to competition law issues, and proposed strategic actions for other regulators to consider concerning their respective regulatory areas, namely telecommunication and broadcasting, data protection and financial services regulators.

The idea of a digital state where different areas of government digitise data and collaborate to provide services for its citizens has been a long stated ambition for the South African government, as part of its push to embrace the 4th industrial revolution - but now it’s more important than ever.

Growth of the entrepreneurial sector is key to addressing South Africa’s unemployment crisis, especially amongst the youth. Young people, however, face many barriers to success. Amongst these is a dire lack of digital literacy and access to internet and data.

The proliferation of freelancing and gig work has seen employers witness a massive shift from traditional nine-to-five jobs to part-time work and independent contracting, known as the gig economy. Employers will need to rethink their reward programmes to align with the digital economy and the disruption it has brought to the employment landscape.

Youth unemployment is a national crisis affecting millions of South Africans. According to Stats SA, the burden of unemployment is concentrated amongst the youths (aged 15-34 years) as they account for 63,4% of the total number of unemployed persons in 2019.

The confidence and hope at the recent SA Investment Conference, spurred on by the Springboks, was tangible. It’s as if that same momentum, and hope in a better future, inspired the call to action by the President. While forever there will be detractors, what’s encouraging is the level of commitment by investors, both local and international, to invest in South Africa.