Public sector 1

Busani Ngcaweni, Johannesburg Business School

Geopolitical developments, alongside legislation such as the US Cloud Act, have heightened uncertainty around the ownership of technology and the sovereignty of data stored in the cloud. Despite global tensions intensifying, it remains unclear whether the South African government’s thinking has significantly evolved around the matter.

This is according to professor Busani Ngcaweni, Johannesburg Business School, who says digital sovereignty is not yet a dominant discourse in South Africa. “It is notably absent even in discussions around migration to the cloud, in contrast to many of South Africa’s BRICS counterparts, where it is central.