Free State 4IR Summit focuses on youth, rural communities and SMMES
The Free State Provincial Government in partnership with the Central University of Technology and the MICTSETA held the 2nd Free State Fourth Industrial Revolution Summit from 21–22 July 2022.
On the opening day, the summit heard remarks from the Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela. The keynote address was delivered by high-rated scholar and thought leader, Professor Seeram Ramakrishna from the National University of Singapore.
Facilitated by Ntombela’s spokesperson, Palesa Chubisi, and Hope FM’S station manager, Motseki Mabuya, the summit’s theme was accelerating economic growth and development of the Free State through innovative 4IR technologies. It featured presentations from various industry players, exhibitions of locally developed innovative products, a Vodacomsponsored gala dinner that was keynoted by the High Commissioner of Ghana to South Africa, His Excellency Charles Owiredu, as well as breakaway commissions that discussed topics such as the application of AI for precision farming, skills development and others.
Not a place for Halala!
Sisi Ntombela, who recently became a social media sensation for her signature Halala! chant, described the 2nd Free State Fourth Industrial Revolution Summit’s mood as too serious for
shouting Halala. Instead, Ntombela declared the summit as a place for exploring different ways in which innovation can improve the lives of the poor by accelerating service delivery, automating government services such as water and electricity billing, reducing snaking queues at clinics and more. “We cannot just come here and say we are going to do this, to do that, while our people’s lives are not changing while we have people who know what the Fourth Industrial Revolution is. Things must not stay the same.”
Among others, Ntombela said the purpose of the first 4IR summit that took place in 2019 was to “leverage the youth dividend for the socioeconomic advancement of the Free State”, while also availing technologies to encourage innovation and youth entrepreneurship. The driving force behind the summits, she stated, must be youth development.
“Our main concentration is, how are we going to make sure that we assist the youth… the Free State is a youthful province, and that means there’s a lot of energy here, and if we’re not going to control this energy anyone can control it in a wrong direction,” said the premier, who is also the deputy president of the ANC Women’s League.
Ntombela further listed the Free State’s 4IR investment success stories, announcing that emerging from the first 4IR summit, her government has invested a seed fund of R5-million into CUT’S innovation hub. Furthermore, it rolled out digital literacy and upskilling programmes in partnership with CUT, IBM and Microsoft across the province, from which over 5000 people were trained. In what could be seen as a relief from the stinking failures of municipalities such as Mangaung Metro
to collect waste, the enthusiastic Ntombela informed delegates that the province has unlocked the circular economy by training youth in new waste management technologies. Another success story is 3D printing technology, which she said the Free State is a continental leader of.
Connecting communities
Ntshavheni underlined the importance of connecting communities in which government facilities are located, saying it was pointless for the government alone to be connected. “We can’t talk about access to the internet by 2024 without making sure that the communities are connected. Why can’t we orchestrate a VPN and avail it to the community?” asked the minister, fervently articulating her department’s plan of having more than 3000 Wi-fi hotspots in communities. Ntshavheni further stated that even as the government aimed to have 80% of South Africans connected by 2024, her department eyed 100% of the population
To reach this ambitious target, the department has moved to attach social obligations to the IMT spectrum it releases, so that companies that obtain it can also address SA’S connectivity problems.
Ntshavheni also called for the transformation of the telecommunications industry through the emergence of other mobile network operators to disrupt the oligopoly enjoyed by Vodacom, MTN and Telkom. Additionally, she applauded ICASA for its efforts to curb SA’S ever-rising data costs. “With the support of ICASA data in SA no longer expires. And that’s part of making the price of data affordable.”
Again, the minister informed delegates that her department is working on a local alternative to Zoom for cabinet meetings. “We created a platform, which is going to be an app store, called Digitech. It allows every young person who has developed an app to put it there and make it known,” revealed Ntshavheni, going on to challenge the Free State to follow suit.
On the international front, Ntshavheni
announced that SA is going to become Africa’s artificial intelligence hub. Practically, work is already underway to create an AI Institute in collaboration with Wits University and the University of Johannesburg. “We must be specific and intentional. In SA we have a very robust mining industry. Imagine if we could continue to mine gold underground without fear of losing a life... We want to use robots to work 24hrs to intensify manufacturing,” said Ntshavheni. She also mentioned that Covid-19 presented her department with unique challenges on how to support other ministries, such as basic education, in circumventing the impact of the pandemic.
“In this department we don’t talk about 4IR because that’s a general term. We talk about the things we are doing to achieve that. As long as there is no network in the rural areas, there will not be deployment of these fourth industrial technologies, so we must focus on the basics,” asserted Ntshavheni.
The driving force behind the summits must be youth development
South Africa is going to become the continent’s artificial intelligence hub
Capacitating small and medium businesses for 4IR
According to Prof Ramakrishna, South Africa has to leverage the circular economy not just to achieve net-zero emissions but also for growth objectives. “4IR is transforming the way companies manufacture and supply products and services,” said Ramakrishna, who is the advisor to the Singapore ministry of sustainability & environment and chairman of the Plastics Recycling Centre of Excellence.
For South Africa’s ailing economy to recover, small and medium businesses have to build resilience, which includes digitally transforming their business operations and practices. This is according to Microsoft SA’S national technology officer, Asif Valley.
“Through education, they can achieve the know-how on what technologies are best suited to them, purchase options and how to use and drive adoption of technologies.”
Ntshavheni, who was heading the department of small business
development when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, alluded to the importance of digital platforms for small businesses. She said the pandemic exposed her then department in the area of reporting. “The president asked how many SMMES are in the country and I did not know. So, we started a portal called SMME SA to register all the SMMES, so that we can account for the SMMES that are in the country, the sectors that they play and their growth,” said Ntshavheni.
She added that the fact that 30000 business owners later applied for Covid-19 relief using online channels taught the government that “this thing of online support must happen now”.
According to Ntshavheni, her department’s move to connect all schools and community colleges will create opportunities for unemployed graduates through SMMES to maintain the schools’ network. “We want to use young people from the Free State. Then we will challenge the CUT and the University of the Free State to tell us what kind of curriculum they are teaching if it’s not giving us the output that contributes to the economic development of the Free State,” she announced, to a round of applause.
Ntshavheni committed that young people in the SMME space will be prioritised for opportunities as her department strives for universal connectivity.
Board chairperson of the SMME Chamber, Loyiso Tyira, said that for young people to seize 4IR opportunities, the government and its institutions had to be unapologetic about supporting SMMES in the tech sector. He challenged institutions of higher learning to form partnerships with
SMMES in the tech space to which they will transfer technologies coming from their research. The
SMMES will then take the technologies to market.
“It needs to be done in scale, with government support. The government of the Free State should be saying, where are the technologies coming out of here, and how do we support them?” asked Tyira, who is also the chairperson of MICTSETA’S IT committee.
Tyira also criticised incubation centres, claiming they can be frustrating to hungry developers who want to penetrate markets.
CUT from an innovative cloth
The Central University of Technology (CUT) used the summit to position itself as a frontrunner of innovative solutions in the Free State, the continent and the globe. The institution has developed technological capabilities that make it a game-changing institution.
Delivering his remarks at the summit, acting vicechancellor and principal, Prof Alfred Ngowi, said, “As a university of the 21st century we find ourselves part of the knowledge society, where increasing global connections, challenges and imperatives have called for a realignment of the university’s vision, our academic direction, and purpose with this reality.”
Describing the summit as “an important platform that will provide a unique opportunity for researchers and graduate students to network and embrace intellectual development within the 4th Industrial Revolution”, Prof Ngowi further took pride in the integrated advanced technological methods comprising the internet of things, big data and cloud computing, which the CUT farm possesses.
CUT’S 3D printing technology is known for making headlines with its medical ground-breaking research.
The institution’s Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, which oversees the 3D technological explorations, has handed critically injured patients an innovative lifeline through its designs of spinal cages, prosthetics, titanium implants, and more. Head of CRPM at the university, Dr Gerrie Booysen, said the centre is committed to bridging the gap in medical device innovation manufacturing. South Africa still imports 95% of medical devices it uses.
Youth at the front
Youthful innovators and 4IR industrialists exhibited their smart products and services. The exhibition tent was abuzz with human activity as delegates and residents moved from stall to stall, engaging the exhibitors on their products.
Tlotlanang Combined School’s all-girls group of Gomolemo Sebolai, Keitumetse Mbangula, Omolo Kgara and Lesego Leburu, all in Grade 9, showcased their design of the Robot Arm H25 model, describing it as useful for heavylifting purposes in manufacturing and construction. The learners excitedly punted their invention as a useful intervention that will reduce bodily injuries and help with multitasking.
Replying to concerns that emerging technologies took people’s jobs, the exhilarated girls defended their product, stating that workers should not feel threatened by the machine, but learn to operate it and keep their jobs.
Kekeletso Spyker, marketing coordinator at the newly launched Botshabelo Digital Hub, said the purpose of the hub is to capacitate innovators to bring their ideas to life. “What we do is that we incubate techpreneurs. We take you from idea phase; assist you with resources to take you from idea phase to actual execution,” outlined Spyker, adding that Free State innovators struggle with capital to act on their ideas, and the Digital Hub’s role is to connect them with potential product development funders.
Some of the young techpreneurs incubated at the Botshabelo Digital Hub exhibited their creations at the summit, covering gaming, drone engineering for precision farming, e-commerce platforms, as well as coding and robotics.
Overall, the summit was a great harvest of insights, perspectives and ideas. Delegates heard that the Free State has an entrepreneurial market for device repairs that was unlocked during hard lockdown when home-based CUT students started fixing people’s phones and laptops. Business opportunities also exist in digitally traded services, data storage and more.
Spotty the famous robot dog, also made an appearance at the summit, flaunting his skills to curious delegates who wanted to know more about him. Spotty is a working machine used in industry, especially mining on the African continent. It can also assist in health, going to quarantine sites and doing health checks.
Following two days of wide-ranging discussions, in-depth presentations, speeches, exhibitions and a 4IR gala dinner that let some of us down for not having programmed utensils, the 2nd Free State Industrial 4.0 Summit ended. However, due to poor time management, the summit was concluded without formalised resolutions.
Nonetheless, premier Ntombela already set the tone for the next 12 months when she declared that her government aimed to increase future awareness of 4IR, create platforms to drive the culture of innovation, lobby lawmakers to embrace tech, generate employment opportunities for youth and also give local communities space to explore solutions to local problems.
The jury is still out as to the lengths the provincial and national governments, CUT, relevant SETAS, and other strategic partners will go in turning things around. The expectation is that by the next summit, the province will have successfully leveraged the youth dividend for economic emancipation, even as such a youth dividend faces the irony of filling Z83 forms to apply for jobs in a government Ntshavheni said was “very serious about 4IR”.
Young people in the SMME space will be prioritised for opportunities
Tlotlanang Combined School’s all-girl team showcased their Robot Arm H25