Switched on with Cape Chamber CEO, John Lawson: South Africans are the original innovators

With all this talk of load shedding in the Eskom dark ages, it’s easy to forget an important fact: South Africans are the original innovators.

Scientific discoveries at Sterkfontein, Blombos Cave and Pinnacle Point – to name but a few archaeological sites – show that humans first started acting ‘modern’ right here in amongst the fynbos and Baobab trees, doing revolutionary things like painting figures on cave walls at a time when the rest of humanity were chasing themselves around with pointed sticks.

Of course, it wasn’t only rock art that set our ancestors apart: they caught fish in traps and used fire to shape weapons and tools – a quantum leap forward in human behaviour made possible by a friendly climate and location.

Fast forward 70,000 years or so and you’d have to say we have lost our competitive advantage. People in the global north are now decorating their homes, too, and our fish traps are obsolete. The world has caught up and overtaken us, particularly when it comes to the power supply.

However, the same survival instinct that saved humanity a few ice ages ago stays with us here in the south where, just like our ancestors, we innovate ourselves out of trouble.

News last week of Cape Town’s cash-for-power scheme getting the go-ahead from National Treasury is one such example of a creative response to the crisis. Rather than accept our fate, we find our own solution, even if somewhat last-minute.

When times are tough we sometimes forget we are skilled and innovative, a melting-pot society with an age-old track record of ingenuity.

Another case in point is Africa’s largest 5 Axis milling /CNC /5D printer, now bolted into place in Paarden Island. The Omegaverse project is led by local businessman Clinton Johns, a boat builder and composites expert. It has the potential to be a game-changer in the manufacturing sector and is an example of what can be achieved by forward-thinking – and risk-taking – South Africans, of whom there is no short supply.

Government dignitaries are due to visit the Omegaverse facility this week, and it brings to mind another recent South African manufacturing success – a Stellenbosch-made micro-satellite launched by SpaceX. Six more micro-satellites are due to take to the skies over the next two years.

All of which proves the point that, no matter the load shedding level, the light at the end of the tunnel is probably somebody beavering away to set things right.

It’s good to remember that our ancestors didn’t need electricity to invent rock art. So who knows what we’ll come up with next.