South Africa has withdrawn its first draft national artificial intelligence policy after it was found to contain fictitious references that appeared to have been generated by an artificial intelligence tool, in what the country’s Communications Minister has described as a massive embarrassment to his department and the government.
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi announced the withdrawal on Sunday, 26 April 2026, just over two weeks after the policy was published in the Government Gazette on 10 April 2026 for public comment.
“I am withdrawing the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy. South Africa deserves better,” Malatsi said in a statement. “The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies did not deliver on the standard that is acceptable for an institution entrusted with the role to lead South Africa’s digital policy environment.” 
The fabricated sources were first flagged by activist Zackie Achmat, who published part of a letter written by organisation Article One to the minister on Friday, 24 April 2026, raising concerns about the use of fake references. The following day, News24 published an article confirming that several of the sources cited in the policy did not exist.
Six fictitious sources were identified, including journal articles attributed to authors and publications that could not be verified. Among them were a supposed 2023 article titled “Challenges and Opportunities in Regulating AI: Perspectives from South Africa” attributed to Babatunde and Mnguni in the AI Policy Journal, and a 2021 piece titled “The Impact of AI on Social Justice in South Africa” attributed to Smith and Mahomed in the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, neither of which exist.
Article One said it was highly concerning to find fabricated sources in any national policy document, adding that their presence suggested the use of a large language model in drafting the policy. “LLMs are known to hallucinate information when generating text,” the organisation said.
Speaking to SABC News, Malatsi offered a public apology and did not hold back in assessing the scale of the failure. “This is an apology to South Africa. It should not have happened. This is a massive embarrassment to the department and the government,” he said.
The minister said the irony of the situation was not lost on him. “It just exposes the irony inasmuch as we were in the process of developing a policy that will also have a package of guidelines around the responsible use of AI. We fell foul of that. We fell short of that, and you know, as government, particularly as the executive authority, we have to take responsibility for the lack of robust oversight,” he said.
Malatsi acknowledged that he had personally reviewed the policy and missed the fabrications. “I interfaced with the policy a lot of times in terms of reviewing it and subjecting it to scrutiny internally. We missed this,” he said.
The draft policy had been approved by Cabinet on 25 March 2026, combined with a special sitting of Cabinet on 1 April 2026, meaning President Cyril Ramaphosa and other Cabinet members had signed off on the document before its publication.
Malatsi said there would be consequences for those responsible. “I want to reassure the country that we are treating this matter with the gravity it deserves. There will be consequence management for those responsible for drafting and quality assurance,” he said, adding that the department would work to restore the policy’s integrity before republishing it for public comment.
The withdrawn policy had sought to position South Africa as a continental leader in artificial intelligence innovation while addressing ethical, social and economic challenges. It outlined plans to establish a National AI Commission, an AI Ethics Board and an AI Regulatory Authority, as well as incentives including tax breaks, grants and subsidies to encourage private sector collaboration.
“As a tool, it’s very useful. It can’t be a substitute for human responsibility,” Malatsi said.
