The impact of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) on Africa and how the continent intends to respond in order to benefit is expected to dominate discussion at this year's IT Leaders Africa Summit (ITLA 2019), scheduled for 8 and 9 October 2019 in Cape Town.

Organisers say digital security measures, new legislation and law enforcement "during the season of rapid growth in connectivity and communication" have been included as core themes on the agenda.

ITLA 2019, the 11th edition of the Summit, will also shed light on South Africa's stance regarding 4IR and related opportunities.

A statement by the organisers references an excerpt from an ITWeb report in which the country's minister of communications and digital technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams is quoted as saying: "Within the next few months, the commission will engage with key stakeholders and the public, working towards the development of South Africa's blueprint on 4IR., This is in addition to what the industry is doing. For example, Telkom has about 160 000km of fibre, which will be critical as we move forward into the 4IR. Broadband Infraco has rolled out 15 000km of fibre and 147 points-of-presence throughout the country. Sentech has an extensive wireless network with more than 300 sites to deliver digital and broadband services."

The Summit will feature a presentation on 5G by Todd Krautkremer , CMO, Cradlepoint and input from Omeshnee Naidoo and Shuaib Parker from the City of Cape Town discuss the importance of talent acquisition in South Africa.

Themes to be covered include AI, IOT, Cloud technology, big data and the role of the CIO.

The event also marks the merging of security with the heightened risk of 4IR movements.

"Whether this is entirely accurate remains to be proven but where there is money there is greed and greed begets crime. It is no surprise that the need for new legislation around cybercrimes has emerged in South Africa, the bill has been passed and we are simply waiting on the Presidency to enact it into law," state the Summit's organisers.

The event will also feature a presentation by Brigadier Piet Pieters, Acting Head: Priority Crime Specialised Investigation, South African Police Service who will explainthe impact of this change in the Cybersecurity portion of ITLA 2019.

Wessel Matthee, Information Security Manager, Pick 'N Pay Corporate Services Limited. Robin Barnwell, Head: Security Strategy Enablement, Standard Bank. And Thembile Mtolo, IT Governance, Risk and Compliance Manager, Exxaro Resources are also on the agenda, focusing purely on risk analysis and security, methodologies and execution.