Why the future of South Africa's tech sector depends on young talent

IF YOU ask any South African tech leader what keeps them up at night, chances are the answer will not just be the country’s unreliable energy grid or regulation.

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You can add skills to that list as well. Or more precisely, the lack thereof.

As businesses push ahead with digital transformation, the demand for specialised IT skills has never been higher.

Yet at the same time, thousands of qualified young South Africans remain locked out of the formal economy.

We are seeing this contradiction up close. On one hand, we are building intelligent edge solutions, deploying software-defined networks, and enabling real-time business intelligence across sectors.

On the other, we are hiring and finding it increasingly difficult to source candidates with the right blend of technical expertise and applied experience.

Skills like cybersecurity, cloud architecture, and data science are the foundations of the modern enterprise.

Roles like Security Analysts and Data Scientists have become critical as organisations try to navigate sprawling digital environments and growing cyber threats.

But beyond the technical know-how, what we are really looking for are professionals who can work across domains, those who can understand how cloud, network, and security functions interact, and how to deliver business outcomes in real-world settings.