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But there seems to be very limited high-level discourse about how South Africa plans to navigate this wave of technological advancement.

Elsewhere in the world, US presidential candidate for 2020 Andrew Yang is building his entire campaign around this issue. He is promising to introduce Universal Basic Income, through which every American over the age of 18 years will receive US$ 1 000 per month from the government. This, he believes, will provide security and enable mobility for workers displaced by automation.

A number of European countries are also currently running large-scale Universal Basic Income experiments to investigate its potential as a response to automation.

For South Africa, with its large number of low-skilled workers, a dramatically improved education system is an obvious and critical concern. Despite high unemployment, there remains a scarcity of skills in a wide variety of areas. This suggests a mismatch between supply and demand in the labour market.

It is also important to understand how technologies will displace work in future. This understanding can help to better inform young South Africans’ career choices.

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