Ndabeni-Abrahams said this at the weekend when she delivered a keynote address at the Cyber Law workshop hosted by Orizur, a cyber-law consulting enterprise in Pretoria.
The commission is serving as a national overarching advisory mechanism on digital transformation. It will identify and recommend policies, strategies and plans that will position South Africa as a global competitive player within the digital revolution space, according to the minister.
She said South Africa was ready in terms of skills to adapt to the 4IR.
“We are also enhancing the skills. We do have qualified people but there are certain skills that we do not have. We have launched a campaign of training one million data scientists (between 2019 and 2030)” to close the gap, she said.
The minister emphasised the importance of changing the country’s education system in an effort to adapt to the 4IR.
In addition to the Presidential 4IR Commission, the minister said she was looking at establishing a work stream of young innovators who could assist the government in solving challenges through technology.
The workshop was aimed at empowering delegates on general aspects of cyber law, including information and communications technology (ICT) contract management, 4IR technological developments, cybersecurity for both business and individuals as well as the importance of intellectual property rights.