Tech experts call on South Africa to scale up its digital infrastructure
South Africa needs to accelerate digital transformation and infrastructure to harness the potential of
Although the country has made inroads with developing policies for the adoption of AI, including the National Policy on Data and Cloud, the National AI Policy Framework and the establishment of the AI Institute of South Africa, which laid strong groundwork, the uptake of the smart technology has been slow.
'In order to sustain positive momentum and unlock the full potential of AI, South
Africa must address three key challenges: AI infrastructure, industry application, and talent and local ecosystem development,' Gene Zhang, the chief executive of
He said in terms of infrastructure, the three main challenges are date, computing power and connectivity.
'Data is the fuel of intelligence. It is projected that by 2030, the world will generate 1
less than 3.5 Zettabytes [a trillion gigabytes], with less than 30% utilisation. This is largely due to the absence of unified platforms for data collection, storage, and processing,' Zhang said.
'Computing power is the brain of intelligence. Global demand for AI computing power is
expected to reach 105 ZFLOPS [a unit for measuring the speed of a computer system] by 2030 — 500 times that of today. Yet, South Africa's AI computing growth rate remains below 60%.'
By 2030, 23% of households
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister
'This includes concluding the Broadcast Digital Migration process to free up spectrum, expanding 5G infrastructure, and modernising public facilities with open-access fibre,' Malatsi said.
Through the Affordable Smart Devices Workshop to ensure affordable access to smart devices for all South Africans, the treasury was able to remove the luxury goods tax on smartphones priced under R2 500, he noted.
'This is a meaningful step toward reducing barriers for low-income households to access smart devices. It is one small step in a long journey of eliminating barriers to affordable smart devices,' the minister added.
South Africa is also lagging with respect to talent and local innovation, Zhang said.
'South Africa currently faces a talent gap of 500 000 in ICT [Information and Technology Communications], with 60% of this concentrated in AI, big data, and cloud. The country's total AI investment stands at around US $500 million, but 70% comes from foreign sources.
'This highlights a clear need to accelerate local AI investment and development.'
To address this, Malatsi said the country is investing in digital skills through the national Digital and Future Skills Strategy. He said the country's aim is to empower 70% of the population with basic digital skills by 2029. This includes integrating digital literacy into basic education and scaling community-based learning initiatives.
'These efforts target not only students, but also job seekers, workers in transition and vulnerable groups such as women and persons with disabilities to ensure that no one is left behind in the digital economy,' he added.
The government's other aims are to promote the productive use of digital technologies — as a tool to access government services, run online businesses, reach new markets and connect with job opportunities — as well as to become the 'most attractive destination for ICT investment on the continent'.
Zhang said AI technologies are accelerating across the world, especially in public sector industries.
'AI models have improved significantly — reports show that since 2022, the accuracy of various AI models has increased 91.5%. The cost of using AI has rapidly decreased — data shows that since 2022, the price of AI model usage has dropped 99.3%.
'As a result, AI adoption is accelerating across industries — with 53% of enterprises already using AI.'
But in South Africa's industry-specific applications, AI adoption is still at the early stages.
'Cloud penetration is relatively low, and AI has yet to achieve deep integration with verticals,' he added.
As businesses adopt digital technology and AI, they should ensure the societies that use them are uplifted and the digital divide is not widened, said Jonas Bogoshi, the chief executive of South African ICT company BCX.
'We're not talking about gadgets here. We are talking about upliftment of societies,' Bogoshi said.
'We are talking about a mother in the rural community able to access health specialists with telemedicine. We are talking about a young student who can code, we are talking about an AI system that can detect problems or rather can detect that there's an issue on your crop and therefore be able to stop it and help you to be able to harvest quicker. It is more than just gadgets, it's how people interact with their yield.'
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