The Annual Lecture, to be hosted in partnership with the University of Johannesburg, is a flagship event in our strategic reflections programme. It occupies a prestigious place in the intellectual landscape and has attracted wide audiences since it was first launched in 2012.

This year’s lecture will be delivered by Professor Tshilidzi Marwala, the Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General under the theme: The perils and welfare effects of Artificial Intelligence: whither South Africa?

Prof. Marwala has been a visiting scholar/professor at universities in the USA, the UK, China, and South Africa. He has extensive academic, policy, management, and international experience, and is a co-holder of five patents. His research has been multidisciplinary, involving the theory and applications of artificial intelligence to engineering, social science, economics, politics, finance, and medicine. He has served on a variety of global and national policymaking bodies and has worked with such United Nations entities as UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and WIPO.

Prof. Marwala is, inter alia, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Science of South Africa, and the African Academy of Sciences.

Among the awards that Prof. Marwala has received are the Order of Mapungubwe (South Africa’s highest honour) and the Academy of South Africa’s Science-for-Society Gold Medal. He was named the 2021 IT Personality of the Year by the Institute of IT Professionals South Africa.