Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela says South Africa must urgently adapt its education and training system to artificial intelligence, automation and digital transformation as the country faces a “workforce-transit capability problem”. Photo: Delvin Verasamy
South Africa is not waiting for the digital revolution – it is living within it. This is the message of the Minister of Higher Education and Training Booti Manmela He will be in Parliament on Tuesday when he will present his budget vote speech.
His address was based on one central idea: digitalization is no longer optional; It is the backbone of the country's future workforce.
“The digital revolution is not just getting closer to South Africa. It is already restructuring our economy, our workplaces and our labor markets,” Manmela said in an interview before the budget vote.
“Artificial intelligence, automation and digital platforms are not abstract threats or distant possibilities – they are already reshaping call centres, logistics, mining, banking, manufacturing, retail and even public administration.”
Mnemela is set to deliver a 2026/27 budget vote speech in the National Assembly on Tuesday, positioning digitalisation as a key driver of South Africa's skills revolution.
The budget prioritizes workplace-integrated learning, apprenticeships, sustainability of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, infrastructure investment and the expansion of digital learning platforms in universities, TVET colleges and Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).
“When young people leave our institutions, they should not be headed for unemployment. People need to know that when they come to our institutions, there has to be something more to it than during and after that.
“That is why we are focusing on workplace-integrated learning apprenticeships… so the budget invests in programs that will ultimately translate into employment, livelihoods, etc.”
Expanding access to education remained another priority, although Manamela stressed that the issue was not just increasing enrollment numbers but improving the quality of education throughout the system.
The shift toward digital learning accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when online learning platforms became central to instructional delivery.
“This is already happening in the private sector. This has reduced the cost of learning and teaching, so digitalisation is the future of access to quality education in South Africa and that is what this budget is talking about,” the minister said.
Addressing current challenges, Manmela said the third idea was to prepare for the future economy using digital skills and artificial intelligence, advance the green economy (for example, research capacity) and strengthen international partnerships.
On a recent visit to China the minister returned with two partnership agreements that will cost the country nothing apart from helping it develop new skills in hydrogen and energy, for example.
While the education system was preparing for the jobs of today, it should be about shaping the future as it is “not about being stuck where we are but we must start moving forward to prepare for the present and the future”.
“This is the heart of the budget. We are building a single system that is currently in silos; we must stop looking at education as a social expenditure. We must look at education as a socio-economic and developmental expenditure.”
The question was no longer whether South Africa had participated in the transition or not.
“We are already partners,” he said. The real question is whether the country will deliberately and inclusively shape the transition – or be shaped by it on terms set elsewhere.
Beneath the budget allocation lies a broader argument about the future of work – and the future of South Africa's institutions.
Manmela argued, “We don't primarily have a skills shortage. We have a workforce-transition capacity problem.”
The skills shortage means the country needs more graduates, artisans and engineers. The transition-capacity problem went even deeper: South Africa's institutions were not configured to move people from where they were to where the economy was going.
“We still very much run our education and training systems as if careers are stable, qualifications are permanent and technological change is gradual. But none of this is true any longer.”
Workers require reskilling throughout their lifetime, he said. Abilities must be continuously developed. Business routes were changing rapidly. Digital literacy was no longer optional. Adaptability itself has become an economic capability.
Manamela argued that this made institutional agility the central challenge facing the country.
“Can universities rapidly adopt curricula? Can TVET colleges respond dynamically to labor market demand? Can SETAS move beyond compliance administration towards genuine workforce planning? Can quality councils modernize qualification development cycles?”
He cautioned that these were not merely administrative questions. Those were strategic national questions – and South Africa's institutional architecture was not built for the current pace of technological change.
The country entered the transition taking on deep structural inequalities. Millions of young people are out of employment, education or training, while many schools and communities lack basic digital infrastructure.
This is where the existential crisis arose.
“Technological acceleration, institutional gaps and social inequality are now converging,” he said.
“When these three forces unite, they do not automatically generate inclusion. They generate exclusion. Quietly. Sequentially.”
He warned that the digital divide is no longer just a communication problem. It was becoming a development division, a citizenship division and a participation division.
Nowhere was that contradiction more visible than in the post-school education and training system. South Africa had created a system disproportionately oriented towards minorities entering university, while the majority pursued their future through TVET colleges, CET colleges, vocational programs and workplace learning.
“These sectors bear the burden of workforce change, yet they remain under-resourced and undervalued. This is not just a social injustice. It is a strategic economic mistake.”
In an address at the University of Johannesburg on Friday, Manamela said South Africa does not lack policies or strategies. “There is a lack of coordination, implementation and accountability.”
He argued that institutions often operate in silos while the economy functions as an integrated system. “Often, policy cycles move more slowly than technology cycles.”
The department is pursuing what Manmela describes as a systemic reestablishment strategy focused on expanding digital infrastructure in the after-school system; accelerating competency in AI, cyber security, renewable energy and automation; Improve coordination between SETAs, universities and industrial policy; Investing in long-term vision capacity; and strengthening accountability.
“The public is no longer satisfied with policy intentions alone,” he said.
Manmela acknowledged that the government cannot manage the change on its own. Universities, TVET colleges, SETAS and industry need to become more responsive and collaborative.
“The countries that will benefit most from the digital revolution are not necessarily the countries with the most advanced machines,” he said. “They will be the most capable people.”
South Africa has the institutional capacity to adapt, Manamela said. But in an economy being reshaped by technological change, capacity without urgency means nothing.
The digital revolution will not stop while South Africa debates its preparedness. Change was going on. The question was whether the South Africans would be equipped
To lead within it or will too many people be excluded from it.
Manamela believes the country can meet the challenge.
But, he said, confidence must be matched with urgency. “Collective will is still necessary… because the digital revolution will not stop until we debate whether we are ready.”
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