South Africa’s unemployment rate stood at 33.6% in the second quarter of 2026. Among those aged 15 to 24 it was 62.8%. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, 41.8%.
Those figures framed the 5th Annual Future of Work Dialogue in Pretoria this week, where the Tshwane University of Technology’s Institute for the Future of Work argued that South Africa must move from AI policy design and debate to implementation.
“The future of work is not a conversation about the future anymore. It is already here,” said Tseliso Mohlomi, Senior Director in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal at TUT.
The dialogue, themed “Turning the Developmental Tide: Advancing Africa’s Resilient Future Through AI-Enabled Innovation Pathways,” aimed to shift focus from what AI might mean for South Africa to what institutions must do now.
The waiting problem
“The young South African searching for work today cannot wait another five years for institutions to perfect their strategies,” Mohlomi said. “Neither can businesses searching for skills that our education and training system is not yet producing at sufficient scale.”
The IFOW’s position is that South Africa has strategies and policy initiatives covering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital transformation, innovation and skills development. The problem is coordinated implementation.
A council proposed, not formed
Participants at last year’s dialogue proposed establishing a National AI Implementation Council, capable of coordinating government, universities and industry against a measurable, time-bound delivery roadmap.
This year’s dialogue aims to carry that forward by proposing concrete steps and division of responsibilities across government, business and academia, with timelines and measurable outcomes.
A proposal to coordinate implementation, made a year ago, has itself not been implemented. That is the argument the dialogue is making, demonstrated.
Education and employment out of step
Mohlomi identified the gap most sharply in the relationship between the two.
“Employers continue to require rapidly evolving capabilities, while universities and colleges must prepare students for occupations and technologies changing faster than conventional curriculum cycles.”
The IFOW called for a more integrated response:
- Earlier identification of emerging skills by employers
- Faster curriculum adaptation
- Expanded apprenticeships and workplace learning
- Greater industry investment in the skills pipelines businesses recruit from
Sector Education and Training Authorities are part of that process.
Where the demand is
The Institute identified immediate skills demand in cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI literacy and data engineering.
Longer term, it argued South Africa and the continent will need deeper capability in microelectronics, advanced manufacturing and embedded AI systems — hardware-adjacent fields where African capacity is thinnest.
Mohlomi rejected the framing that the country must choose between technological advancement and employment, arguing the two can reinforce each other.
