Gigaba can innovate himself out of his hole by looking to rest of Africa

SA’s finance minister is at a crucial crossroads. He can decide to preside over a failing economy, which is dying not only because of state capture by powerful private interests, but also because it hasn’t been able to alter those structural conditions that have made it so dramatically unequal in the first place.

Or, he can face the crisis head-on and be clear that new recipes are needed: innovative ideas that can turn the economy around and make it much more resilient to the always present risk of corruption. Perhaps his hesitancy on the nuclear deal is a sign that things are happening.

I have never met Malusi Gigaba and have not been a great fan of his work, especially when he ran home affairs. But I believe people can redeem themselves, so he should get credit for at least being intellectually honest when delivering his medium-term budget speech.

If I had an hour of his time I would show him how other economies are innovating out of the current global mess, enabling people to achieve financial success while enhancing social cohesion and improving the health of endangered ecosystems. I would tell him about my conversations with young entrepreneurs in Kenya, who are at the forefront of a digital revolution that is taking Africa by storm.

I would like him to visit companies such as Craft Silicon, a technology provider working on financial inclusion across the continent. Not only is Craft Silicon expanding rapidly with its online payment tools, but it is launching a microfinance initiative, whose main goal is "to finance all those intelligent ideas that conventional banks are not interested in", CEO Kamal Budhabatti says.

Craft Silicon has also launched Little Cabs, a Kenya-owned app aiming to counter Uber’s ruthless dominance in Africa. Moreover, its foundation runs an education programme that should be replicated in SA’s townships: a colourful bus equipped with solar-powered computers and internet connections drives across slums and rural areas to teach the youth how to be part of the digital revolution, with the top students landing a job at the mother company.

At the group’s Nairobi headquarters, a growing team of tech-savvy youngsters sit in open-plan offices sharing ideas that are already changing the economy. The average age of staff at Craft Silicon is 26 years.

I would also mention how Rwanda’s focus on solar energy is allowing small businesses to thrive and how Costa Rica produces more electricity than it needs from renewable energy. Schools, hospitals and public buildings in Costa Rica and many in Rwanda run on renewables: no blackouts, no load-shedding, low bills.

I would also show him how the Indian government is building hundreds of "smart villages", an innovative approach to rural resilience based on digital access to information and local production of renewable energy. The Indians are convinced new technology can support rural areas and provide opportunities for better education and livelihoods.

In the US, something similar is happening: the authorities of New York have supported energy decentralisation, creating opportunities for residents to build their own energy microgrids to exchange solar energy produced on their rooftops. The microgrid is operated through a blockchain, a peer-to-peer public ledger that is also the technology underpinning BitCoin.

The crisis SA faces need not result in doom-and-gloom scenarios. It can be an important opportunity to build a better economy that works for all people and nature

I would introduce Gigaba to my colleague Ndubuisi Ekekwe, who has developed digital sensors that analyse soil data to help farmers apply the right fertiliser and optimally irrigate their farmlands. Across Nigeria, the process is already improving productivity by using analytics to facilitate data-driven farming practices for small-scale farmers. I would like him to meet another colleague, Verengai Mabika, who would tell the minister how cryptocurrencies, especially BitCoin, are changing the Zimbabwean economy and affording an optimal channel for migrant workers to send remittances home.

Then I would like him to have a chat with my friend Pat Pillai, whose social enterprise is training underprivileged South Africans to become small-business owners in some of the most innovative fields.

Just before the hour expires, I would quickly catch his imagination by showing how countries such as Scotland, Canada, Finland and India are considering the introduction of a universal basic income. Finland has begun a formal experiment involving 2,000 people.

Should he believe that such economic innovation is only possible in wealthier countries, I would remind him that Namibia ran a similar experiment a few years ago, in the village of Otjivero, where the introduction of a monthly R100 basic income grant for all residents triggered a large drop in poverty, malnutrition and school dropouts while fuelling an explosion of microbusiness activities.

I would also point out a number of innovative initiatives, right here in SA, that are trying to introduce basic income by harnessing the potential of cryptocurrencies.

Finally, I would propose he visit Rustlers Valley Farm in the Free State — a cross-sectoral collaboration involving scientists, activists, renewable energy experts and local villagers — that has resulted in a bottom-up process of land redistribution that could become a model for the rest of the country.

I may never have one hour with Gigaba, I accept that. But perhaps the minister or his team may find a little time to attend the Wellbeing Economy Festival, taking place at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) International Convention Centre from November 27 to 29. The ideas and innovations discussed in this article and many more will be discussed there. It will be an open event, involving some of the innovative social entrepreneurs and thinkers who are disrupting conventional wisdom about economic development in Africa and elsewhere.

The crisis SA faces need not result in doom-and-gloom scenarios. It can be an important opportunity to build a better economy that works for all people and nature, and which can be achieved at a lower cost than what the country is spending to keep the unequal economic system on life support.

• Fioramonti is the director of GovInn at the University of Pretoria and the author of Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World without Growth.