Solly Malatsi stakes South Africa’s AI future on staying neutral
South Africa will not align itself with either Washington or Beijing in AI, communications minister Solly Malatsi has told TechCentral, rejecting the…
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South Africa will not align itself with either Washington or Beijing in AI, communications minister Solly Malatsi has told TechCentral, rejecting the central premise of a new Boston Consulting Group study that argues the window for countries to hedge between the two AI superpowers is closing.
The Great Divide: How the US and China Are Splitting the AI World, published on 30 June, found that the two countries are no longer building rival products inside one market but separate and increasingly incompatible technology stacks, running from chips through cloud and models to applications. Where BCG’s 2024 assessment found that countries could still mix and match across both, it now warns that “the two ecosystems have diverged to the point where neutrality may soon become harder to sustain”.
South Africa is not named in the report. But nearly every condition BCG identifies as pushing a middle-income country towards one stack or the other is present here, and the country will not have a published national AI policy before next year.
Asked by TechCentral whether South Africa’s membership of the China-led World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (Waico) carries any commitment on technology standards or procurement, Malatsi was unequivocal in his reply.
“South Africa’s membership, like its participation in any multilateral AI or technology body, carries no binding commitment on technology standards or procurement,” he said in a written response to questions. “South Africa engages with all such organisations, whether led by the US, China, the EU, or any other bloc, on the same basis: to share knowledge and advance global cooperation, not to align our state technology choices with any single geopolitical camp.”
State buying, he said, remains governed by existing procurement law and practice, “including value-for-money, interoperability, security and fit-for-purpose assessments”, with an approach that “has consistently emphasised open standards, interoperability and avoiding vendor lock-in, principles that apply regardless of a vendor’s country of origin”.
“To be clear: no membership of Waico, or of any comparable body aligned with any other country, will ever determine South Africa’s procurement decisions based on the nationality of an OEM or service provider,” Malatsi said. “South Africa is not choosing sides in the divide the referenced report describes. We intend to remain able to work with the best available technology, wherever it is developed.”
He did not answer a second question on whether the redrafted national AI policy will include guidance on the acquisition of AI hardware and software stacks.
Read: China weighs blocking the West from its best AI
South Africa has signed the agreement establishing Waico, acting deputy director-general Jeanette Morwane told TechCentral last week. The body, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and established in Shanghai in July, will “focus on creating native AI innovations and tools, r…