A sharper focus on technology development is critical for the transformation of South Africa's two economies into a single developed economy, writes Tshilidzi Marwala.
The ultimate aim of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is to push back the frontiers of poverty, be they physical, mental, political, economic or otherwise. Simply phrased, the ultimate goal of the NDR, in South Africa in particular, and in our continent in general, is to usher in a developed economy in the shortest possible time.
A developed economy would allow the ultimate liberation of our people from undesirable external influences and will permit us to chart the destiny of our country far beyond where we would otherwise have been allowed by the market forces that are supported by huge economic muscle. Indeed the founding fathers and mothers of our movement dreamt of this developed economy. This developed economy that we ought to strive for will have unique characteristics that will reinforce the great people we are, but it ought to be able to discharge all the necessary economic resources required for us to rally the social, political and economic responsibilities that our people have resoundingly mandated us to fulfil.
Given this ultimate goal, the question that begs a political response is: What are the critical factors that we ought to cultivate to ensure economic development in the shortest possible time? In this article we identify technology to be the most critical aspect that is supremely involved in the modernisation of economies. The identification of technology as a major driver to the modernisation of our economy was noted by President Thabo Mbeki in his 2004 'State of the Nation' address.
One of the major misunderstandings of the 20th century was the assumption by many people of the apolitical nature of technology. Indeed technology has been at the centre of major political engagements in the last century, such as the cold war, arms race, space race and the Second World War. Thus technology is indeed very political. What we ought to do as a movement is to investigate this critical factor, how it has evolved in the past, where it is today and how it will evolve into the future. Furthermore, we ought to put down strategies and tactics to best respond to all the challenges and opportunities that future evolution of technology will pose. The point of departure of this article is to investigate where we are as a country with regards to technology and to use this information to strengthen the NDR.
CURRENT STATUS
We are currently at a critical stage where the degree of technological innovation and the resulting exploitation of such innovations is low, yet the degree of technological consumption is high. For example, we consume a device such as a cell phone in large quantities, yet as a country we do not manufacture cell phones, even though the necessary technology to do so is relatively simple and can be galvanised within our own borders. This is because of the lack of synchronisation between the technological, economic and political sectors. Looking into the relationships between these three sectors one observes there is a large gap between the technological sector and the political sector, much more than the gaps between technology and the economy or the economy and the political sector. This is largely due to the inward looking nature of the technological sector, which can only be remedied through transformation, and thus the increase in the participation in the sector by the overwhelming majority of our people.
As a relatively developed African country, we are ideally placed and have an obligation to develop the African technology infrastructure, as well as the second economy in our own borders. We can do this from a good infrastructure with sound experience of using technology. Our combined first and second economies provides us with a unique environment to bridge the gap between the two economies and thus stimulate our innovative and competitive edges. Indeed the NDR can never be fulfilled until the gap between the first and the second economies has been narrowed, resulting in a singular first economy.
Our government has identified technology as a priority that will see to it that in the long run, the NDR will marshal a singular first economy from the first and second economies. To achieve this goal, education is very important and considerable resources have been put by the current government into rectifying its problems through the restructuring of higher education. These strengths need to be balanced against our weaknesses. Most of our weaknesses relate to our inability, but not incapability, to compete against extremely powerful global technological competition. The local technological sector is almost totally dependent on these global players for major technological needs and this has resulted in technological imperialism, with a major mismatch between talent and deployment. resulting in deep technical skills not being required in our country. This is counter-revolutionary and will serve only to delay the attainment of the NDR goals.
The requirements for technological infrastructure in our country have previously focused on deployment rather than creating a competitive strong local technological sector. As a consequence, a sub-culture of a propensity to go for expensive short term solutions at the cost of longer term savings and skills has developed. Indeed, the government's approach towards open-source technological avenues is intended to eliminate this sub-culture. Of course, this course of action needs to be pursued vigorously lest the capacity to provide solutions will decline rapidly resulting in technological imperialism. A culture of valuing local intellectual knowledge and solutions needs to be dynamically promoted. There is some evidence through measures such as the 'Proudly South African' movement that this culture is slowly being introduced although it still has to enter the intellectual property space, where the stakes are high.
WAY FORWARD
In this paper we identify the critical issues that will facilitate the acquisition and consolidation of both the current and emerging technology necessary for the success of our National Democratic Revolution. For us to realise a competitive, strong and growing technology sector in this country we need to carefully look at the role that the academic community needs to play in research and human resource development. It is perhaps not an accident that major technology companies such as Intel, Yahoo and Google, which individually control more financial resources than nations, germinated from the academic sector. It is important to note that cutting edge ideas are, in fact, necessary factors for us to transform our two economies into one first economy.
Research, which is largely conducted by the academic community in this country, is an essential ingredient of the development of these cutting edge ideas. But this cannot be so unless the academic sector becomes more patriotic. The degrees of patriotism can only be increased to maximum levels if a strong relationship exists between the academic sector and the political sector, as well as the academic sector and the economic sector. Indeed what has transpired over the last few years is that issues that dominate the global research community tend to be issues that confront the OECD countries, which are 30 of the world's wealthiest, while issues that confront the developing world are sidelined.
A patriotic research community is a necessary criterion to critically invigorate our economy and to dynamically grow it to meet our social, political and economic goals. A patriotic research community will ensure that the direction we take is driven by largely broader societal needs and the long-term growth of the economy rather than being determined by short-term commercial interests with vested short-term financial interests. This would require a revolutionary approach to industry-academia-government collaboration that is focused on long-term rather than short-term gain.
Another obstacle to a dynamic technological sector is the reluctance of the industrial sector to invest in local research activities. This problem may be overcome by incorporating into the transformation agenda contributions of the industrial sector towards research and a requirement that goods and services that the technology sector offers must include a defined component that is locally generated. The strategic defence package has some aspects of this but this must be promoted throughout the technological sector. As a way forward it must be emphasised that the technology sector must have as part of its mandate an emphasis on the improvement of the quality of life. This may be achieved through supporting public service delivery and creating better technology-based administration delivery.
The technology sector needs to support our democracy. This may be achieved through measures such as automated voting and supporting our educational system through technology-based interactive learning particularly in the most rural parts of our country. The technology sector must also facilitate access to information, opportunities and services through finding innovative ways of producing cheap communication devices. Perhaps this could be achieved through the integration of computers and television. This is not far fetched as it has become possible to integrate computer networks into television. This area of research can only come from the developing nations because that is where access is needed and many people would not be able to afford both television and computers. This would enrich the community and would revolutionise the cultural landscape of our country from a developing mode to one that is poised for development and unity while encouraging diversity. It will serve as entertainment and will aid in the opening of Africa and unlocking the continent's wealth.
South Africa ought to strive to be a major technological centre within 20 years; it ought to become a major technology exporter; be at the centre of technological revolution in Africa, in particular and the world in general; and stimulate the increase of small and medium enterprises. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is a revolutionary process that broadly advocates these goals albeit at the continental level. In order to achieve these goals we need to continue to debate with all the important players. The transformation of our economy into a unitary first economy needs to be a collaborative initiative with the appropriate infrastructure, communication channels, enabling policies and continued monitoring of targets.
Technology is identified as a critical factor for the transformation of our economy into a developed first world economy. Some critical factors such as a strong collaboration between political, economic and technological sectors; a greater sense of patriotism; and strengthening the educational sector are advocated to facilitate the National Democratic Revolution. The road that lies ahead is steep but as a people we have the capacity to overcome all the obstacles. Victory is certain. We shall become a developed economy.
Tshilidzi Marwala is a member of the ANC Thomas Nkobi Branch in Gauteng.
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