Two senior South African Department of Communications officials have been identified as the focus of the investigation into AI-hallucinated references in the withdrawn Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy, according to government sources cited by Sunday newspaper Rapport.
The officials are Dumisani Sondlo, the department’s AI policy head, and Mlindi Mashologu, deputy director-general for digital society and economy. Both predate Communications Minister Solly Malatsi’s tenure, which began in July 2024 — Sondlo has worked at the department since 2012, while Mashologu was appointed in 2020. According to Rapport, the two officials frequently posted on social media about their roles in developing the draft policy.
The pair were reportedly given until April 29 to explain the inclusion of fabricated sources in the policy’s reference list. The fictitious citations are strongly believed to have been produced by a generative AI tool, with the large language models behind such tools generating text based on statistical patterns rather than verified facts. The presence of these sources has raised questions about the reliability of the policy’s evidence base, the rigor of its review process, and the credibility of its recommendations.
Malatsi withdrew the policy April 26 following a News24 investigation that exposed the fabricated references, prompted by a letter from Article One that flagged six fictitious sources in the document. “It should not have happened. This is a massive embarrassment to the department and the government,” Malatsi told SABC News, adding that the irony was difficult to overlook given the policy’s intended focus on guidelines for the responsible use of AI. He declined to confirm whether anyone would be dismissed, saying he did not want to influence the outcome of the investigation.
On April 30, department Director-General Nonqubela Jordan-Dyani confirmed that two officials had been placed on preliminary suspension pending the investigation. It remained unclear whether the suspended officials were Mashologu and Sondlo.
Malatsi, a member of the Democratic Alliance, has come under political pressure from the African National Congress over the incident. ANC spokesperson on Communications and Digital Technologies Shaik Subrathie described the failure as “catastrophic,” demanding that Malatsi appear before Parliament to explain the circumstances of the policy’s drafting and gazetting and name those responsible for drafting and quality assurance. The ANC’s statement did not acknowledge that ANC Cabinet members and President Cyril Ramaphosa had also approved the policy before it was gazetted.
The South African case follows a similar incident at the Department of Home Affairs, which recently suspended two officials after News24 discovered more than 100 fabricated references in the Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees. In that case, the references appeared only in the standalone reference list and were not cited in the body of the document. Home Affairs argued the white paper continued to accurately reflect the government’s policy position and that “these measures are not materially affected by the apparent AI hallucinations contained in the standalone reference list.”
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