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The Future of Work: SA and the Global Tech Ecosystem

4 September 2019 , by Candice Grobler

South Africa's tech ecosystem is full of amazing human potential that is rarely celebrated and tapped into. At our latest event in The Future of Work series, Matsi Modise from SiMODiSA, Devina Maharaj from Investec and Malan Joubert from OfferZen discussed strengthening our ecosystem through connection and why international emigration of our talent is a great sign for the industry. Keep reading for some of the main thoughts and some awesome snapshots of the evening.

You can also listen to the podcast, or check out the full video below:

ā€˜Brain drainā€™ can actually be good for an ecosystem

The idea that highly-skilled software professionals leave South Africa and take their skills abroad scares a lot of people - especially because it's assumed they wonā€™t come back. But this isnā€™t a problem that is unique to us:

The fact that South African software makers are leaving the country could actually be a positive signal: Both because it means that our local workforce is wanted abroad and because they are likely to learn skills that we may not yet have locally. Many of these software makers also only go abroad for short stints. Once they come back, they are more likely to be able to solve problems and start companies, which in turn creates more jobs and grows the SA economy.

This also applies when youā€™re the one looking to hire great talent:

Strengthen the community by paying it forward

As Devina put it: ā€œA big challenge for South Africans is that we are hyper-cynical about SA. We donā€™t celebrate the tech ecosystem enough, and we donā€™t celebrate the effort being put in by companies that are contributing to it.ā€ While our local community is strong and thriving, often, thereā€™s a lack of awareness of all the opportunities and initiatives across the country. Whatā€™s missing to really grow this awareness is a culture of proactive connection and paying it forward.

In places like Silicon Valley, this is quite different. For example, Malan shared stories of visiting Palo Alto where, in his experience, it was relatively easy to reach out to failed startup founders, CTOs, and software makers and they were happy to share their learnings and experiences. They even gave him all sorts of advice on how not to go about building a tech company!


A huge THANK YOU to our sponsors Investec, Luno and SnapScan for making this discussion possible - it really goes a long way towards building a community that is involved, connected and excited to build cool tech!

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Weā€™d recommend following our speakers - online of course ;) - for more on the work theyā€™re doing to build up our local ecosystem:

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If you attended the event, you may have been caught on candid camera! Check out the images from the evening to see if you can spot yourself:

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