Future makes own demands for radical economic transformation

APART from being the usual networking soiree for Africa and the world’s well-heeled, the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa presents an interesting platform for debate. At the recent 2017 Durban event, the concept of radical economic transformation was put before a critical and sceptical audience.

Notably absent from the debate (in so far as it has been presented) is tactical detail of the trade-offs this will involve, how the ANC government will use its existing levers (legislative, policy and regulatory) and how it will crowd in public and private investment in a manner that creates what economist Paul Rosenstein-Rodan called a Big Push.

Such a Big Push in SA would not be about “catching up” to western powers, but responding to contextspecific economic challenges of redress and equity. The Big Push required now happens in a world much different to what RosensteinRodan described in the 20th century.

Bricks, mortar, co-located and low-paid (or semi-skilled) workers confront the prospect of being replaced (to an extent) by homes, robots, algorithms and high-skilled labour as sites of value-creation.

In this regard, what are the “productive forces” needed to achieve this kind of “shared and inclusive growth”? What kind of education, training and innovation (research and development, intellectual property and commercialisation ecosystems) are needed to avoid “adverse incorporation” into a “fourth industrial revolution” that has the potential to extend the digital divide?

You don’t have to look further than the recurrent fights between transport workers over the growing popularity of Uber.

The story of “technological disruption” is no longer the stuff of science fiction comics and conspiracy theory, but a looming reality set to affect us all. Yet one seldom hears, even from labour and the ANC, how this reality intersects with the commitment to achieve full employment or radical economic transformation.

A prescient starting point is the education system, which has to occupy more of the conversation.

As Oxfam International’s Winnie Byanyima, a WEF on Africa cochair, observed: “… the jobs of the future aren’t even yet created and we need to prioritise the refashioning of our education systems in Africa if we are to give the next generations a chance”.

The uniformed conveyer-belt basic education system is no longer relevant. What is needed is an emphasis on teaching people how to learn in a dynamic sense; a pedagogy focused on lifelong learning alongside use of emerging tools.

In a conversation I had with him last week, National Council of Trade Unions president Joseph Maqhekeni highlighted the work the union is doing in reskilling workers for the “fourth economy”. This pre-emptive move by the federation is refreshing and signals an understanding of an ever-shifting context that challenges not just jobs but the 20th-century model of trade union organising and servicing of workers.

Its emphasis on community involvement recognises workers are not only those on the factory floor but also those who stand, cap in hand, at the factory gate, begging for a livelihood.

Not enough of the debate on radical economic transformation centres on creating new spheres of production and value as the world changes and nascent sectors (platinum fuel cell technology, mobile and digital value chains and the multiple uses of big data) emerge in spheres that looked very different in the 20th century.

Interventions geared to these new spaces need to be inclusive and long-term. Radical economic transformation must present an opportunity to lay the basis for different terms of incorporation into the global economy.

Otherwise we will be unable to move from complaints of powerlessness and the comfort of slogans. A good starting point is in what and how we learn – not just for young ones, but for all of us.

Ayabonga Cawe