Professor at the North-West University’s Accounting Science’s department, Thys Swanepoel, say this latest development is predicted to affect all existing industries and sectors across the globe. South Africa’s sluggish economy also stands to benefit. Swanepoel says 4IR will give access to education and information that can improve the lives of billions of people, falling in line with South Africa’s own 2030 plan to alleviate poverty.

According to the Financial Management Account lecturer, 4IR will give us access to products we’ve never had access to before, it will open entirely new markets to us, creating trade opportunities and chances to learn. Swanepoel mentions the way in which drones have already transformed service delivery, can be utilised to even fight crime in South Africa.

This optimism comes at a time when South Africans have quite a negative outlook on the country’s future. Unemployment figures for the second quarter in 2019 rose to 29% from 27,6% in the first three months of the year, the highest since 2008. When using the expanded definition, which includes the number of discouraged workers, the situation becomes more bleak, with unemployment being 38,5%.

The academic explains 4IR is merely a disruption in the norm. “It is the merging of the different technologies that we have and is distorting the lines between physical, digital and biological domains.” Swanepoel explains this last point by speaking on the role 3D printers play in the medical world, for example, hip replacements. “We don’t know the outcome. Researchers are of the opinion it is going to be unlike anything we have seen before”.

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