Mkhize was speaking at the ANC’s National Policy Conference Breakfast Session on Saturday along with Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies. “If we don't go radical‚ we are going to widen inequality so bad that our entire democracy will be at risk and that is what we are solving.
“It has nothing to do with fighting the private sector‚ it’s helping the private sector.
“The future belongs to a much more broader‚ competitive base that will make the SA economy even stronger on a broader (scale)” Mkhize explained.
Meanwhile Davies expressed similar sentiments‚ saying the emergence of digitalisation and technological advances as a result of the 4th Industrial Revolution would also deepen inequality if the country did not get its act together.
The revolution has seen the emergence of technology as a fundamental way of life‚ work and is‚ according to the World Economic Forum‚ unlike anything humankind has ever experienced before.
It will promote the use of mobile supercomputing‚ intelligent robotics and self-driving cars.
Davies said those who thought this was only a concept that would be realised in years to come were misleading themselves.
“These are just some of the technologies that the WEF tells us are going to produce disruptive effects across production‚ across the world and I thought what we need to take into account is that if we think it is something that will take place in the future‚ I think we are misleading ourselves. It is happening now‚” Davies said.
He further explained that if the country does not push for a radical approach to economics‚ then it would never overcome the challenges of unemployment‚ inequality and poverty.
- BusinessLIVE
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