In the same statement, director-general Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani also said the irresponsible use of AI had compromised the policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid severe backlash from the public and opposition parties<\/a>, Malatsi published a statement announcing its withdrawal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a statement, Malatsi said the error was more than just a technical issue, but also a failure that compromised the policy’s integrity and credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As such, I am withdrawing the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy. South Africa deserves better,” the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies did not deliver on the standard that is acceptable for an institution entrusted with the role to lead South Africa’s digital policy environment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is unclear why it took another month and a half for the withdrawal to be gazetted, especially considering it was just two paragraphs long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I, Solly Malatsi, hereby withdraw Government Gazette Notice Number 3880 published in Government Gazette Number 54477 on 10 April 2026,” the minister wrote in the notice, signed on 4 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Draft South Africa National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy was published for public comments and is withdrawn entirely effective from the date of publication.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies has subsequently established a team of experts to review the country’s new draft AI policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malatsi personally roped in the experts, which include Benjamin Rosman, Vukosi Marivate, Allison Gillwald, Heather Irvine, Tshepo Feela, Jabu Mtsweni, and Lufuno Tshikalange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosman, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, will chair the expert review channel. In an interview with MyBroadband, he said Malatsi had handpicked the members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosman is a professor in the institution’s School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics and has been involved in some of South Africa’s most notable AI research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is also the head of the Wits MIND institute, which is dedicated to AI research in South Africa and received R17.5 million in research grants from Google in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marivate, the co-founder of Lelapa AI, the Deep Learning Indaba, and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Pretoria, will join Rosman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gillwald, an executive director of research at ICT Africa and an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town, was also selected for the committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Irvine, a competition law specialist, and Feela, a commissioner at the National Planning Commission, also form part of the team and will cover the legal aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, Mtsweni, who is the head of information and cybersecurity at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, will join the team, alongside Tshikalange, a data privacy and cyberlaw specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It was a hand-chosen group of people. The fact that people come from different backgrounds is something I always find really exciting,” Rosman told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I feel it is plausible that these are people who feel strongly about doing their bit to help the country, so I think it should be a very interesting engagement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communications minister Solly Malatsi made the withdrawal official through a notice published in the Government Gazette, about a month and a half after announcing it would be pulled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":647425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92837,18668],"tags":[5978,35793,104785,66538,104841,105894,70657,105896,76862,105895,94251],"class_list":["post-653920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-government","tag-alison-gillwald","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-benjamin-rosman","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies-dcdt","tag-draft-south-africa-national-artificial-intelligence-ai-policy","tag-heather-irvine","tag-jabu-mtsweni","tag-lufuno-tshikalange","tag-solly-malatsi","tag-tshepo-feela","tag-vukosi-marivate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653920"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653997,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653920\/revisions\/653997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dream team to fix South Africa’s AI policy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AI-policy-dream-team.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n