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10 June 2019 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Charl Devenish
4IR Prof Marwala
Prof Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg and speaker at the first UFS public event on 4IR awareness (middle), with Prof Corli Witthuhn, UFS Vice-Rector: Research (left), and Tafadza Kachara, member of the UFS 4IR committee.
A computer programmed to play poker and learning by itself how to bluff; an algorithm that predicts whether two countries will ever go to war; machines that detect epilepsy with almost flawless accuracy these are some of the groundbreaking abilities brought about by technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Addressing the first UFS public event to enhance 4IR awareness, Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg, briefed staff, interested parties and members of the media about recent 4IR developments and their implications.

Prof Marwala is currently a thought leader on the impact of the 4IR on higher education in South Africa as well as the Deputy Chairperson of the national commission appointed by the president to formulate 4IR strategies for South Africa.

Industrial revolution history

He recapped how, during the first industrial revolution, people started to understand how nature worked, ultimately leading to the development of the steam engine.
The second industrial revolution was marked by the development of electromagnetism which led to electrification and mass production, while the third produced computerisation and a rise in digital technology. 

The fourth industrial revolution is characterised by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between cyber, physical and biological systems. This has led to rapid advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and 3D printing.


Artificial intelligence

Prof Marwala pointed out that, although fears were rife of machines taking over people’s jobs, the flipside of the coin was that dangerous jobs such as fire rescue operations could be carried out by machines without endangering lives.

Artificial intelligence can be employed to prevent bridge and building collapses by monitoring the condition of structures. It can also be used in credit scoring, where machines search for and analyse all the available data on a credit applicant, without having to rely only on the (sometimes fraudulent) information supplied by the credit seeker. 

He emphasised the great need to develop algorithms applicable to our continent, such as translating software that makes provision for the clicks in languages like isiXhosa, and facial recognition software that incorporates data collected in African countries. 


Is Africa ready? 

Responding to a question from an audience member, Prof Marwala indicated that Africa was certainly not ready for the 4IR when it came to the content of teaching curricula and infrastructure.

“As universities, we should not sit back and wait for change. We have the responsibility to lead our societies to have the same experiences as elsewhere in the world,” he concluded.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art
2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

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