South Africa Hands AI Policy Over to Expert Panel After Draft Withdrawal
South Africa has withdrawn its draft national artificial intelligence policy after references in the document could not be verified and were linked to AI-generated hallucinations, ......
Black News 
South Africa has withdrawn its draft national artificial intelligence policy after references in the document could not be verified and were linked to AI-generated hallucinations, a credibility crisis that the government admits it only discovered after the media reported it first.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi faced Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Tuesday, explaining a chain of events that has set the country’s AI governance agenda back by more than a year and triggered the suspension of two departmental officials.
“When it became clear to the department, more so after the News24 exposé, that at least up to a maximum of six references in the policy were attributed to AI hallucinations, we immediately internally got in touch with the DG and the officials who had been working on the policy to establish the veracity of the allegation.”
– Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa
The minister acknowledged that the incident had damaged the credibility of both the document and the broader government policy development process. He said the withdrawal of the draft was necessary to protect the integrity of the process and restore public confidence.
He described the root cause as a serious failure of oversight.
“There was a massive oversight and a non-disclosure around the use of AI in the formulation of the policy — and most importantly in the references.”
– Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa
Two officials have since been placed on precautionary suspension while a formal investigation determines how the hallucinated citations made it into a Cabinet-approved document in the first place.
Malatsi acknowledged that the fabricated references had done damage that went far beyond footnotes.
“These AI hallucination references do a major stain. They placed a very major question mark on the credibility of the document as it is.”
– Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa
Malatsi further revealed that officials involved in the drafting process had been placed on precautionary suspension while the department conducts an internal investigation into how the errors were introduced and why they were not identified earlier. He stressed that the process would follow public service and labour regulations to ensure fairness and due process.
As part of corrective measures, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has established an AI advisory panel comprising experts in artificial intelligence governance and academia. The panel will review the policy document, authenticate its references, and guide the department through the next phase of the drafting process. The panel is chaired by Professor Benjamin Rosman, Director of the Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at Wits University, and includes Professor Vukosi Marivate, Professor Alison Gillwald, Dr Jabu Mtsweni, Dr Tshepo Feela, Advocate Lufuno Tshikalange, and attorney Heather Irvine.
The minister said the advisory panel is expected to finalise its terms of reference in the coming weeks and begin work on a revised project roadmap for the policy. Government aims to deliver a final AI policy outcome before the end of the current financial year, although Malatsi noted that cabinet processes and public consultation timelines would influence the final schedule.
