Hmmmm... The software industry in South Africa faces several problems. Probably the first problem is that computer science teaching and research sucks. This is

Hmmmm... The software industry in South Africa faces several problems. Probably the first problem is that computer science teaching and research sucks. This is not my opinion but based on research (http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20science%20needs%20a%20booster%20shot.pdf http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/file/EBIT-Innovate/Local%20sci...) – the relative citation index of computer science is at 0.57. Engineering is much higher (at 0.73). This problem is compounded by the fact that the financial services industry absorbs the most talented of those who study computer science. Another problem is the sheer expense of broadband internet connection. Hosting is too expensive for many would be internet start-ups. What is worse, internet start-ups cannot use the only competitive advantage that S. Africa has – fairly cheap unskilled labour (cheaper than developed countries, much more expensive than China and India). Personally, I think the local electronics industry will do better (with medium scale production). Firstly, Engineering education is still a lot better than computer science (thanks in part to international agreements such as the Washington accord which ensures (some) independence of engineering councils and keeps the government and political meddling to a minimum). Secondly, it is not as affected by the problems (bandwidth) and can at least use some advantages (cheaper skilled and unskilled labour). I know of two electronics companies which recently gained quite big multi-year contracts from large US companies. In the long term I am pessimistic though – the quality of primary and secondary education is falling (according to international rankings such as TIMSS and other studies). This creates a problem feeding the universities. The quality of research in universities is also under pressure and decreasing in most technical fields (see linked articles and personal experience as a lecturer). Unfortunately political considerations are before academic excellence. The industrial economy relies on people qualified in technical areas – and it will follow the downward trend. https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_State%282009%29.pdf https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/14593/1/Pouris_St...