South Africa’s Department of Communications and Digital Technologies published the Draft National AI Policy for public comment in April 2026.

It was meant to demonstrate that Africa’s most industrialized economy was ready to govern artificial intelligence seriously.

Instead, multiple academic citations in the draft have been exposed as fictitious. Research cited in a Natonal policy document does not exist.

This is governance failure.

Policy built on fabricated evidence can’t guide decisions that will affect millions of people and shape South Africa’s technological future.

And this is not without precedent.

South African courts have already referred legal practitioners to the Legal Practice Council after AI-generated fake case law was submitted as precedent in separate matters. Now the same credibility crisis has reached national policymaking.

Fake citations. Real consequences.

We have young AI researchers actively publishing in this field.

We have founders building real AI products.

We have technologists with hands-on knowledge of large language models, how they work, where they fail, and what responsible deployment looks like in practice.

These are not spectators. They are practitioners.

And they are largely absent from the rooms shaping AI policy.

That has to change.

South Africa has precedent for legally mandated inclusion in governance. AI should be no different.

BEE legislation recognized that meaningful participation requires structural inclusion, not goodwill invitations.

The same principle should apply to AI governance.

Youth with verified AI domain expertise should not be occasionally consulted. They must be formally embedded in decision-making structures.

We call on Minister Solly Malatsi and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to:

1. Disclose who was responsible for allowing fabricated citations into a national policy document, and account for how this failure occurred.

This causes discredit to South Africa and undermines confidence in our institutions globally.

2. Redraft the National AI Policy with individuals who have real domain knowledge, including AI researchers, founders and technologists actively working in this field.

3. Legally mandate inclusion of youth with verified AI domain expertise in national AI governance structures, not as ad hoc consultation but as structural representation.

4. Appoint young AI researchers, founders, and technologists as official contributors to the final national AI policy framework and policies for emerging technologies.

5. Establish a permanent advisory structure for sustained youth domain-expert participation in South Africa’s AI governance bodies.

These are necessary reforms.

This is a demand from the generation that will live with the consequences of these decisions the longest.

South Africa has the talent.

We have the builders.

We have the researchers.

We have the founders.

What we need now is a Government willing to put them in the room and keep them there.

The public comment window closes June 10th 2026. That is our window.

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South Africa deserves better and we are here to demand it!