Source: President of South Africa –
Programme Director;
Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Buti Manamela;
Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Mondli Gungubele;
Minister of Information, Communications and Technology of the Kingdom of Eswatini, Senator Savannah Maziya;
Senior Vice President for Research, Labs, Technology and Society for Google and Alphabet, Mr James Manyika;
Distinguished guests from fellow African countries;
Leadership of Google;
Leaders of business and industry;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Good morning.
It is my privilege to address this first-ever Google Cloud Summit on the African continent.
Today is about far more than a technology conference.
It is about where Africa chooses to position itself in the defining technological revolution of our lifetime.
Every great economic transformation has been powered by new infrastructure. New innovations. New ways of doing things.
Railways powered the Industrial Revolution. Electricity powered the twentieth century. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence will power the economies of the twenty-first century.
Africa intends not merely to participate in that future. We intend to help shape it.
The holding of this summit is a major milestone for Africa and South Africa.
The regional Google Cloud Summits are the premier technology and enterprise events for showcasing the latest innovations in cloud computing, AI and digital transformation. This event affirms Africa’s position as a core growth region for the global cloud ecosystem.
This is so because Africa is no longer simply adopting technologies developed elsewhere. We are becoming a place where new digital solutions are imagined, tested and scaled.
A substantial part of the projected global cloud value sits in Africa, where the demand for cloud solutions and scalable AI is growing exponentially.
A 2024 McKinsey report found that cloud adoption in major African businesses was on par with, and in some instances even ahead of, adoption rates in North America and China.
South Africa and Google are a perfect match. South Africa combines world-class financial markets, sophisticated legal institutions, deep engineering capability, globally respected universities and a growing innovation ecosystem.
These are precisely the ingredients required for a thriving AI economy.
Google Cloud is one of the largest global enterprise cloud providers. South Africa is Africa’s digital investment powerhouse and Africa’s largest cloud market.
We are a mature market for digital investment, with high internet penetration rates and strong regulatory frameworks.
Beyond housing approximately 70 percent of Africa’s hyperscale data centre capacity, South Africa is also a major investment hub for tech start-ups.
This year’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index ranked a South African city, Cape Town, as the third highest ranked startup ecosystem in Africa.
As leaders, innovators and visionaries, we share a common belief in the transformative power of technology to spur economic growth and to propel human development.
The objectives of this Summit deeply resonate with our national aspirations.
Earlier this year we held the sixth South Africa Investment Conference to attract investment into the productive sectors of our economy.
At this year’s conference, domestic and international investors expressed their ongoing confidence in South Africa as a premier investment destination.
This confidence is underpinned by the progress we are making in the structural reform of our network industries and transformation of our economy.
A critical part of the structural reforms being coordinated through Operation Vulindlela is the creation of a comprehensive digital public infrastructure for South Africa that will serve as the backbone of our modern economy.
Secure, interoperable digital systems will support digitalisation across the public and private sectors, foster financial inclusion and scale up the delivery of public services.
A key strategic priority of our Government is inclusive growth and job creation, and we have been clear on the role a robust digital infrastructure must play in achieving this goal.
We are greatly encouraged that Google shares this view.
The investment announcements that will be made at this Summit are a vote of confidence in our economic trajectory.
They will catalyse job creation, support the growth of small and medium enterprises, and, above all, enhance our global competitiveness.
Cloud and AI are reshaping the global landscape at a pace unprecedented in human history. As South Africa, we stand ready to harness these shifts to transform our economy and society.
AI is not simply another technological innovation. It is a general-purpose technology comparable to electricity, the internet and the steam engine. It will reshape every industry, every profession and every aspect of public life.
Countries that prepare today will define the prosperity of tomorrow.
These shifts present a key strategic opportunity for African countries to accelerate their technological evolution and to embrace the digital infrastructure of the 21st century in entirely new ways.
With the support of Google and our investment partners, we envision a South Africa where businesses and industry adopt cloud and AI-enabled services at scale, more rapidly and at a lower cost than would have been possible through legacy IT infrastructure.
We envision a South Africa where these technologies are rapidly deployed across the public sector, enabling us to modernise public administration, healthcare, education, transportation, public infrastructure and the delivery of basic services.
We see a South Africa where educational content will be provided through the cloud and delivered directly to the classroom using the latest technologies.
We envision a country where AI solutions are deployed for disease management and prevention, to manage the national energy grid, by farmers to predict weather patterns, and by scientists to guide our national climate response.
In addition to cloud and AI providing several solutions, they will ultimately enhance humanity’s capabilities. Ultimately cloud and AI matter because they increase productivity.
For far too long, Africa has had to play digital catch-up with the world’s leading and most industrialised economies. We are now presented with a unique opportunity to be in the driving seat of our own industrialisation and growth.
Technology will unlock entirely new industries, improve the competitiveness of existing firms and create opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs who today face barriers to entering the formal economy.
Bringing these world-class cloud capabilities to our shores will improve data security and ensure that our businesses – from the largest financial institution in this city to the tech start-up in Khayelitsha – have access to the same cutting-edge tools as their global counterparts.
This will enable us to build a digital economy that serves all our people.
Policy agility and responsiveness are a priority.
We are seeking to build a predictable, enabling regulatory environment that supports innovation, safeguards the rights and data of businesses and citizens, and ensures that AI is both developed and deployed responsibly.
The expansion of our digital infrastructure brings to the fore important conversations around data sovereignty, human rights and the environmental footprint of our progress.
As we expand our data centre capacities to meet the demands of cloud computing, we must do so sustainably.
It should, however, be noted that our ambition is not simply to expand and host data centres.
Our ambition is to build companies. To produce researchers. To commercialise African ideas. To create intellectual property that competes globally.
Africa possesses unique challenges. But those challenges are also opportunities.
We are encouraged by the engagements taking place across the industry to ensure that our digital expansion respects fundamental rights, protects our environment and contributes positively to the host communities.
It is through collaborative dialogue between government, industry and civil society that we will successfully navigate these complexities.
Beyond creating an enabling environment, the South African Government is investing in its own cloud infrastructure, including the Sebowa Cloud at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which is a localised cloud and storage platform.
Around the world, governments are investing in critical cloud, platform and AI infrastructure to safeguard sovereignty and protect citizens’ digital rights and agency over their data. In the digital age, sovereignty is measured not only by territorial borders.
It is increasingly measured by a nation’s ability to secure its data, develop its own digital capabilities and exercise meaningful control over the technologies on which its economy depends.
I call on Google and other cloud providers to work with government to build sovereign digital and AI capacity that draws on both state institutions and private sector dynamism.
As we champion this digital transformation, we are mindful that the transition must be a just one. We cannot allow digital poverty to widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
This is why investments in human capital are just as important as investments in data centres and undersea cables. We must equip our young people with the skills they need to thrive in the workplaces of tomorrow.
We applaud Google’s decision to invest in comprehensive AI skilling frameworks and digital literacy programmes that empower our youth.
This will ensure that South Africans are not mere consumers of technology, but active creators and innovators.
This is a vision we hold not just for South Africa, but for the entire continent. Africa’s true wealth lies not in our natural resources, but in the ingenuity and resilience of our people.
As we step boldly into the age of artificial intelligence, our aspiration is to anchor South Africa as a catalyst for the continent’s digital ascendancy.
By building robust infrastructure to harness this technology, we are doing more than modernising our economy – we are taking a quantum leap into the future.
To the leadership of Google: we thank you for being a steadfast partner in Africa’s development journey.
Your investments announced today will serve as a vital artery for our technological future.
Let us continue to work together to harness the boundless opportunities of the cloud and AI.
Throughout history, every generation has been called upon to build the infrastructure of its age.
Our predecessors built roads, ports, dams and power stations. Ours is the generation called upon to build the digital infrastructure that will power the African century.
Let future generations say that when the opportunity came, Africa chose ambition over hesitation, innovation over imitation and partnership over isolation.
Together we will ensure that the technologies shaping tomorrow are developed in ways that advance human dignity, expand opportunity and improve the lives of all our people.
That is the future we begin building today.
Let us ensure that in this new digital age, no person is left behind.
Let us continue to work together.
I thank you.
