Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has suspended two senior officials after artificial intelligence “hallucinations” were found in references attached to the Cabinet-approved Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. A chief director was placed on precautionary suspension on Thursday, 30 April 2026, with a director suspended on Monday.
ALSO READ: Minister vra insette oor konsepwitskrif vir hersiening van burgerskap en immigrasie
The Department of Home Affairs says the suspect references were generated and tacked on after the document was finalised, and were not cited in the body of the text. The reference list has since been withdrawn pending an independent probe. Two law firms have been appointed to manage the disciplinary process and to review every policy document produced by the department since November 2022, when the first large language model was released to the public. The department will introduce mandatory AI checks and declarations as part of its internal approval processes.
Sources: South African Government, ITWeb, TechCentral, The Citizen
