General public of South Africa
Incidents Harmed By
Incident 14674 Report
South Africa Draft National AI Policy Reportedly Included Fictitious References Believed to Be AI Hallucinations
2026-04-10
South Africa's Draft National AI Policy, gazetted for public comment, reportedly contained at least six fictitious academic references. Several cited articles or journals reportedly did not exist or were disclaimed by journal editors, and experts said the errors were consistent with AI hallucinations. The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies said it was reviewing the discrepancies but argued they did not affect the draft's substance.
MoreIncident 15483 Report
South African Home Affairs Revised White Paper Reportedly Included Fictitious References Believed to Be AI-Generated
2026-04-30
South Africa's Department of Home Affairs reportedly appended apparent AI-generated fictitious references to its Cabinet-approved Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. The department said the references were not cited in the body, withdrew the standalone list, suspended two senior officials, and commissioned an independent review of policy documents produced since November 2022. It maintained that the paper's substantive policy positions were unaffected.
MoreIncident 16063 Report
SASSA Facial-Verification Failures Reportedly Contributed to Social Grant Access Disruptions in South Africa
2026-03-30
South African social grant beneficiaries reportedly encountered repeated failures in SASSA's eLife facial-verification portal. Later parliamentary reporting said unsuccessful facial recognition was among the causes of non-verification and confirmed 67,868 grant suspensions in one quarter, but did not specify how many suspensions resulted from facial-verification failures. Affected users were redirected to in-person fingerprint checks.
MoreIncident 16052 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated Image Prompted Emergency Investigation of False Fire at South Africa's Orlando West High School
2026-01-05
A purportedly AI-generated image reportedly depicting Orlando West High School of Soweto, South Africa, on fire circulated and was allegedly shared with emergency services. Johannesburg EMS reportedly investigated and visited the school, confirming that no fire had occurred. Officials said the false report caused public alarm and diverted emergency resources.
MoreRelated Entities
Other entities that are related to the same incident. For example, if the developer of an incident is this entity but the deployer is another entity, they are marked as related entities.
Related Entities
Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (South Africa)
Incidents involved as Deployer
Information manipulation actors in South Africa
Incidents involved as Deployer
- Incident 16052 Reports
Purportedly AI-Generated Image Prompted Emergency Investigation of False Fire at South Africa's Orlando West High School
- Incident 16081 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated Memorial Posters Reportedly Presented Fabricated Child Portraits as Victims of South African School Transport Crash
Information manipulation actors
Incidents involved as Deployer
- Incident 16052 Reports
Purportedly AI-Generated Image Prompted Emergency Investigation of False Fire at South Africa's Orlando West High School
- Incident 16081 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated Memorial Posters Reportedly Presented Fabricated Child Portraits as Victims of South African School Transport Crash
Synthetic media generation technology developers
Incidents involved as Developer
- Incident 16052 Reports
Purportedly AI-Generated Image Prompted Emergency Investigation of False Fire at South Africa's Orlando West High School
- Incident 16081 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated Memorial Posters Reportedly Presented Fabricated Child Portraits as Victims of South African School Transport Crash
Incidents implicated systems
Synthetic image generation technology developers
Incidents involved as Developer
- Incident 16052 Reports
Purportedly AI-Generated Image Prompted Emergency Investigation of False Fire at South Africa's Orlando West High School
- Incident 16081 Report
Purportedly AI-Generated Memorial Posters Reportedly Presented Fabricated Child Portraits as Victims of South African School Transport Crash