Malatsi withdraws AI policy after fictitious sources scandal

South Africa's Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has withdrawn the country's draft National AI Policy after an investigation confirmed it contained fictitious academic references, believed to be AI-generated hallucinations included without verification. The scandal broke when News24 reported that cited journal articles did not exist and credited authors had never written on the attributed topics. Malatsi called it a failure of human oversight, promised consequence management for responsible officials, and noted the irony of an AI governance document being undermined by unverified AI-generated content. A revised version has no confirmed timeline.