{"id":57547,"date":"2026-04-29T06:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=57547"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:47:04","slug":"280761","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/04\/29\/280761\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC piles pressure on Malatsi over AI policy fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248217\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248217\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-248217 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANC-piles-pressure-on-Malatsi-over-AI-policy-fiasco.jpg?resize=640%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ANC piles pressure on Malatsi over AI policy fiasco - Solly Malatsi\" width=\"640\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANC-piles-pressure-on-Malatsi-over-AI-policy-fiasco.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-1024x546.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-768x410.jpg 768w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-150x80.jpg 150w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-450x240.jpg 450w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/solly-malatsi-1500-800-2-1200x640.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-248217\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Communications minister Solly Malatsi. Image: DCDT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Communications minister<\/strong> Solly Malatsi could be summoned to parliament to account for the AI-generated hallucinations that forced the embarrassing withdrawal of South Africa\u2019s draft national AI policy.<\/p>\n<p>The ANC study group on communications &amp; digital technologies late on Tuesday called for the minister to appear before parliament\u2019s portfolio committee on communications at the earliest available opportunity to explain how a flagship policy intended to govern artificial intelligence had itself been drafted partly using it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis debacle represents one of the most alarming failures of ministerial oversight and intellectual rigour in the recent history of South Africa\u2019s digital governance,\u201d study group chief whip Imran Subrathie said in a statement.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"modern-quote pull alignright\">Public comment had been due to close on 10 June. It is unclear when a revised version will be published<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that a policy designed to regulate and set national standards for AI was itself produced through the uncritical and unverified use of AI is an indictment of the governance standards minister Malatsi has presided over at the department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subrathie, who also sits on the portfolio committee, said the group was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d that a document intended to guide South Africa\u2019s approach to \u201carguably the most transformative technology of the 21st century\u201d had been produced this way.<\/p>\n<p>The study group has no power to compel the minister\u2019s attendance \u2013 that authority sits with the portfolio committee itself, which can summon a minister under section 56 of the constitution. The committee is chaired by Khusela Diko, who has herself publicly demanded that Malatsi withdraw and redraft the policy.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Shortcuts\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The study group wants Malatsi to provide a full, transparent account of the internal review, name the officials responsible for drafting and quality assurance, and detail the consequence management measures he has himself promised. It also wants the department of communications to commit, in any redraft, to a process driven by human expertise and rigorous evidence rather than what it called \u201cAI-generated shortcuts\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Malatsi, a senior DA figure in the government of national unity, withdrew the draft on Sunday evening after an internal review he had ordered confirmed that its reference list contained various fictitious sources. The minister said the likely cause was AI-generated citations being inserted without proper verification and promised consequence management for those involved in drafting and quality assurance.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: right;\">Read: Malatsi withdraws AI policy after fictitious sources scandal<\/h3>\n<p>The 86-page document listed 67 references. Several pointed to journals that either had no record of the cited work or did not exist at all. Editors of the South African Journal of Philosophy, AI &amp; Society and the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy independently confirmed to News24, which broke the story, that the articles credited to them had never appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Public comment had been due to close on 10 June. It is unclear when a revised version will be published.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_262818\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-262818\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-262818\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777445223_4_ANC-piles-pressure-on-Malatsi-over-AI-policy-fiasco.jpg?resize=640%2C341&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"ANC MP and chair of parliament's portfolio committee on communications Khusela Diko\" width=\"640\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777445223_4_ANC-piles-pressure-on-Malatsi-over-AI-policy-fiasco.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-1024x546.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-768x410.jpg 768w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-150x80.jpg 150w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-450x240.jpg 450w, https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/khusela-diko-1500-800-1200x640.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-262818\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ANC MP and chair of parliament\u2019s portfolio committee on communications Khusela Diko<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s intervention sharpens what has been a politically bruising week for the minister. Diko, who is in effect Malatsi\u2019s most senior parliamentary overseer, had earlier demanded on X that the policy be scrapped, telling the minister to subject any redraft to a proper review \u201cwithout using ChatGPT this time\u201d and accusing him of hunting for a \u201cscape-bot\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Public works &amp; infrastructure minister Dean Macpherson, a DA cabinet colleague, leapt to Malatsi\u2019s defence on the same platform, dismissing Diko\u2019s intervention as grandstanding. Diko retorted that DA ministers epitomised populism and would soon discover governance was harder than it looked.<\/p>\n<p>Malatsi is the first non-ANC minister to lead the communications portfolio. He and his ANC counterparts in parliament have locked horns on a number of occasions, with the application of black economic empowerment laws in the ICT sector and Starlink\u2019s related pursuit of a South African operating licence the thorniest issues.<\/p>\n<h2>Already under fire<\/h2>\n<p>The substance of the withdrawn policy had already drawn fire. Technology investor Stafford Masie last week published an open letter arguing that the draft risked regulating South Africa out of the global AI economy by prioritising governance over infrastructure investment. The document had proposed an entirely new architecture of seven bodies to oversee AI, including a National AI Commission, an AI Ethics Board and an AI Safety Institute, despite government having committed no money to compute infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: right;\">Read: The AI policy that AI broke<\/h3>\n<p>Phumzile van Damme, the former DA MP turned digital rights commentator, has described the affair as another example of the tech illiteracy of government, warning that it risked becoming a global story about the pitfalls of AI. She invoked the recent Deloitte Australia precedent, in which the consultancy was forced to refund part of a federal fee after a report it produced was found to contain fabricated academic references.\u00a0 \u2013 <em>\u00a9 2026 NewsCentral Media<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"mt24\">\n<div data-qa-component=\"story-content-collapsable\">\n<div class=\"mh-auto overflow-hidden mh-none--print\" data-qa-component=\"collapsable-content\">\n<div class=\"font-knowledge regular line-height-1-5 color-black f6 pt16 pb20 border-bottom border-gray-22 story-copy\" dir=\"auto\" data-qa-component=\"item-story\" data-rc-highlight=\"story\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b><i>Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><span class=\"s2\"><b><i>Sign up here<\/i><\/b><\/span><b><i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#ANC #piles #pressure #Malatsi #policy #fiasco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communications minister Solly Malatsi. Image: DCDT Communications minister Solly Malatsi could be summoned to parliament to account for the AI-generated&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57549,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57547\/revisions\/57549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}