The Quantum Continent Begins Here: South Africa’s Bid For Tech Leadership – Forbes Africa

2025 marked the United Nations’ International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. On the African continent, from the dark fiber beneath its cities to satellites in orbit, South Africa is actively building a quantum ecosystem designed for regional leadership. 
In the heart of Johannesburg, where the hum of urban life meets the cutting edge of science, Professor Andrew Forbes stands amid a labyrinth of lasers and fiber optics at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). As the Director of the Structured Light Laboratory, Forbes is spearheading South Africa’s leap into quantum technology, an audacious scientific undertaking.  
There are five quantum nodes around the country, says Forbes, listing hubs at Wits, Stellenbosch University, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the University of Zululand, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.  
These aren’t isolated labs but interconnected pillars of the South African Quantum Technology Initiative (SA QuTI), now in its second phase with five years of government funding. 
This infrastructure isn’t about fleeting experiments; it’s designed for resilience and scalability, with an Africa-focused lens. “If I get hit by a bus, it doesn’t stop everything at Wits,” Forbes quips, highlighting the “critical-mass” approach that safeguards against staff  turnover. 
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The program rests on three pillars: quantum communications for rolling out networks, metrology for device validation, and computing that taps into global cloud hardware while developing local algorithms. 
South Africa has chosen to skip the capital-intensive race to build quantum computers, opting instead for software mastery on imported systems, a savvy move for maximum impact.  
One of South Africa’s most distinctive advantages lies under-ground, in unused fiber-optic cables laid years ago by the government’s South African National Research Network (SANReN).  
“South Africa has a lot of dark fiber under the ground,” Forbes reveals. “That’s very unusual. Most countries use every meter. We can access that dark fiber to implement a quantum network.” 
This unused fiber is now being repurposed to test quantum key distribution (QKD), a method of encrypting data. Picture pho-tons zipping through these hidden highways for city-to-city QKD, where keys self-destruct if intercepted. Gone is the reliance on tappable undersea cables. Banks and firms can now test quantum-secure data on existing infrastructure. 
And when distances stretch beyond fiber’s reach, the sky takes over. At Stellenbosch University in South Africa, quantum optics expert Dr Yaseera Ismail led a landmark experiment in 2024, linking a rooftop optical ground station to China’s Jinan-1 micro-satellite. 
Over a 12,900km inter-hemispheric link, the longest of its kind, her team successfully demonstrated QKD, generating 1.07 million secure bits during a single satellite pass and encrypting an image of the majestic Table Mountain sent from South Africa to Beijing. 
“Quantum satellite links are pivotal to developing a quantum internet,” Ismail says.  
Recognized as one of UNESCO’s top-25 breakthroughs for 2024, it showcased portable, suitcase-sized ground stations deploy-able anywhere. South Africa’s clear southern skies, unmarred by light pollution, offer favorable conditions for space-based quantum communications. 
Back at Wits, Forbes is tackling one of quantum technology’s most persistent challenges: noise. Using topological states, his team twists light into “knots” that are made to endure chaotic conditions.  
If you encode data in the knot, signals can survive dust, vibrations, or storms, which is vital for Africa’s rugged realities. These innovations are gearing up for real-world tests on dark fiber and satellites, fortifying the network’s backbone. 
The payoffs are already tangible. An AI-quantum camera from the metrology arm pierced fog to read a license plate, solving a cash-in-transit heist. A Wits’ spin-out company is hiring local people for “quantum-inspired” security tools, an early commercialization opportunity for the university. 
South African coders are being trained on genuine hardware, building expertise from within. 
Yet challenges persist. Skills shortages are acute, Forbes admits. Africa’s quantum efforts are theory-heavy, lacking hands-on experimentation. “Even if I install a quantum lab… [staff ] wouldn’t know how to use it.”  
Brain drain siphons talent abroad. 
Ismail cites industry’s wariness as another hurdle. “There’s a bit of reluctance for industry to engage with academics,” she says.  
Policy frameworks still trail the tech, and data equity ethics are still forming.  
But solutions beckon: mandate dark fiber reserves in new builds, offer tax breaks for pilots, and fund “ambassadorships” for 100 African post-doctoral candidates to train in South African nodes before returning home with portable stations.  
Joint ventures between industry, academia and policies to encourage startups, are among Ismail’s recommendations.  
Forbes sees South Africa guiding the rest of the continent to engage with the technology. 
Looking ahead, the vision is expansive: a Johannesburg-Nairobi-Accra link using dark fiber QKD, satellite networks with BRICS nations, and critical systems, from banking to healthcare, protected by unbreakable encryption. 
“Invest in quantum today and your grandchildren will still have a banking system tomorrow,” Forbes says.  
2025 marked the United Nations’ International Year of Quan-tum Science and Technology, and South Africa’s push into the quantum frontier could well ignite a continent-wide revolution. 

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