3-mob.com 
Zanu-pf famously said in 2013 said it would provide 2 million jobs for the economy and that became a popular rallying point for their successful campaign into office.
But by then the world had started talking about how work will be in the future would given the automation of many jobs across the world
Even in the agriculture industry which has been labour intensive for a long time, a farm that needed possibly a thousand workers now has a team maximum 20 people including casuals. Of course this is not representative of all farming but you can see the point.
In South Africa, prominent bank Nedbank is caught up in a storm right now after it was reported that robots replaced 3,000 jobs. Nedbank has installed 59 software robots and plans to have 200 in place by the end of the year. With about 32,000 staff, the bank said its natural attrition rate is about 3,000 per year.
That is 3,000 actual jobs becoming redundant.
With Nedbank invested in Zimbabwe having taken over MBCA this is more than existential issue with jobs most likely to be made redundant.
We can’t fault innovation and technology but questions have to be asked about our readiness for it. We hear all talk about how Ziscosteel will be important for the economy but with retooling and mechanisation how many jobs will be automated and have people retrained for the future of work.
Even within journalism, some organisations have already started having reports clasped together by artificial intelligence. So sports reports are being written by machines and not humans. Which would mean, will the job of reporting now become redundant. That said the New York Times for example, with its paywall service has become very successful because it offers good quality journalism.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute, of 46 countries and 800 occupations estimated that over 800 million jobs could be lost to machines by 2030.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma said recently that we will have to think of education for the future, what our children will have to learn different things, away from what the machines can do. Given machines do not tire and are less prone to mistakes this is key.
Some may sit and say Zimbabwe is so behind the curve that it really isn’t a big deal. Ma disagrees:
This is why I’m traveling, talking to all the government and state leaders and telling them move fast. If they do not move fast, there’s going to be trouble. So when we see something is coming, we have to prepare now. My belief is that you have to repair the roof while it is still functioning.
And that is where the critical aspect of the conversation has to take place. We might promise 2 million jobs, but what are they?
Ma says the future is small businesses being enabled to trade across borders which fits perfectly into his business model. But the question, is who is paying for these things, unless people suddenly get rich? Elon Musk, a South African billionaire who has done incredible work with Tesla where he serves as CEO and founder, says the future of work is no work. What does that say about the future of commerce? Because while we automate someone has to pay for something.
Musk suggests universal income but from what perspective. How will that standard be decided?
Makr Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook takes the approach that the more important highly skilled workers are for an individual organisation, as well as throughout the value chain of technology production and usage.
And this is what we will have to deal with, given the government’s Open For Business mantra. Will investors come in to make millions and employ a team of five because a lot of their work is automated elsewhere or outsourced?
If that is the case, when they offer their services, in an already underemployed country, who will pay for them?
Comments
Loading…