Barriers to Effectively Leveraging Opportunities within the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa

The world is undergoing the advent of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), driven by technologies that create opportunities for businesses and society. The study investigated the barriers experienced in leveraging these opportunities within South Africa. Triangulation of round table discussion with 6 experts and 35 semi-structured interviews has identified eight barriers to effectively leveraging opportunities within the fourth industrial revolution. These include the prevailing prohibitive costs of data, low economic inclusion, poor digital culture, literacy and skills deficiency among the youth, the manual-automation job dilemma, high crime prevalence, low entrepreneurial intent as well as inadequate privacy and security within the technological and social media space. These barriers require urgent attention as they are likely to create another ?missed opportunity' for re-industrialisation in South Africa and other African countries, making it more difficult to win their fight for high economic growth and competitiveness.