South Africa withdraws national AI policy after fake citations found

South Africa's Communications Minister Solly Malatsi on Monday withdrew the country's draft national artificial intelligence policy after an investigation found that at least six of its 67 academic citations were fabricated The policy, which had been approved News24, a South African news outlet, checked the bibliography and discovered that the cited articles did not exist, even though the journals were real and the Malatsi called the fictitious citations an "unacceptable lapse" that "compromised the integrity and credibility of the draft policy." He said consequence management would follow for those responsible for drafting and quality assurance. The parliamentary portfolio committee chair suggested the department "skip using ChatGPT this time" when redrafting. The document will be revised before being reissued for public comment, but no timeline has been given. The scandal leaves South Africa without a formal AI governance framework and raises questions about whether the department responsible for regulating AI has the institutional capacity to evaluate the systems it proposes to oversee.