South Africa’s draft National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy, which featured AI-hallucinated references, has officially been withdrawn through a Government Gazette dated 12 June.
This, after communications minister Solly Malatsi initially announced its withdrawal in April, citing integrity as the reason behind the move.
News outlet News24 made the discovery that several of the academic journals cited in the policy document were “completely fictitious”.
In the brief gazette, the minister says: “I, Solly Malatsi, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, hereby withdraw Government Notice Number 3880 published in Government Gazette Number 54477 on 10 April 2026.
“The Draft South Africa National AI Policy was published for public comments and is withdrawn in its entirety effective from the date of publication.”
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) said last month that it was still targeting this financial year (2026/2027) to finalise South Africa’s AI policy.
Among the notable reasons for the targeted timelines is the need to minimise a prolonged period of policy vacuum, said the DCDT minister.
As per the DCDT, the internal investigation − probing how the policy that featured as many as six AI hallucinated references was presented for public comment − is still underway, with two officials placed on precautionary suspension so far.
In its presentation, the department indicated the overall review process is designed to allow the revised policy documents to be submitted to Cabinet by November 2026, with a target publication date for public comment of January 2027.
In addition, the DCDT said it is enforcing its internal responsive AI-use policy framework, which has been taken through its governance structures in the department.
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