The jobs we are afraid of losing

Two national conversations are unfolding at once. Although they appear unrelated, they are driven by the same anxiety.
One of them centres on immigration, where movements such as March and March argue that foreign nationals are taking jobs from South Africans.
The other focuses on artificial intelligence, a technology often described as an imminent threat to human employment. The targets differ but the fear beneath them is the same — a belief that opportunities are shrinking.

In South Africa, the fear cannot be dismissed as resistance to change. Unemployment has hollowed out households, delayed adulthood and placed extraordinary pressure on those who do have an income. A job is rarely just a job. It is often a lifeline for an extended family. When opportunity feels scarce, any shift in the labour market can seem like a threat.
The anxiety is familiar to those of us working in industries AI was expected to disrupt first, including public relations. It remains a profession my mother struggles to explain. When asked what I do, I suspect she offers a loose description involving writing, the media and helping companies manage how they are seen.
This week marked World Public Relations Day, under the theme “The Golden Age of Strategic PR”. It is a bold declaration for a profession long misunderstood but it reflects a real shift.
As organisations navigate declining trust, geopolitical tension, misinformation and technological disruption, communication has moved from a support function to a strategic one.

For years, practitioners argued that our work belonged beyond the publicity desk. We wanted a seat in the boardroom to help leaders understand how decisions would land outside the organisation’s walls.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the shift. Organisations had to communicate amid fear, uncertainty and rapidly changing information.
Since then, global instability has elevated reputational risk and made communication increasingly inseparable from strategy. The work has moved closer to the decisions themselves. Communication is no longer simply about explaining what an organisation has done; it is about helping leaders understand how the decisions will be received, where trust might be lost and what reputational consequences might follow.
I use AI almost every day. It helps me process information, test arguments and complete certain tasks far faster than before. It would be dishonest to pretend this has no implications for employment. Routine tasks will disappear, entry-level roles will change and some teams could become smaller.
But faster production has not removed the need for strategic counsel. When a company faces public anger, AI can generate a statement. It cannot, however, establish whether the organisation understands the anger, what it should take responsibility for or how trust can be rebuilt.
As part of World PR Day, the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa has championed a continental declaration to professionalise public relations and responsible communication across Africa. It seeks to set clearer expectations around competence, ethics, transparency and accountability in a profession that shapes how organisations, institutions and leaders engage with the public.
Its timing is significant. When anyone can use AI to generate a statement, campaign or persuasive message, producing content is no longer the real measure of professional value. The greater test is whether those behind the communication understand its consequences and can be held accountable for their choices.
This is where the immigration and AI conversations meet, although they are not the same issue. Both reflect a fear that change is taking something away, be it jobs, security or the possibility of a better future.
Foreign nationals and machines then become visible culprits in a more difficult reality, one in which our economy is not creating enough opportunities, while the nature of work is changing faster than many people can adapt to it.
Neither blaming immigrants nor resisting technology will resolve that. The challenge is to understand what is changing, preserve what remains valuable and prepare people to participate in what comes next.
As business, commerce, politics and society continue to evolve, the value of human judgement is not disappearing; it is becoming more visible. In public relations, the value lies in context, credibility, accountability and an understanding of how people make sense of change.

• Madiba is the founder and managing director of PR Powerhouse.

Sunday World