South Africa: Department of Communications and Digital Technologies closes consultation on draft national Artificial Intelligence policy

On 10 June 2026, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies closes the consultation on the draft national Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy. The policy applies to all developers, deployers, and users of AI systems across the public and private sectors, with education, healthcare, agriculture, and public administration identified as priority areas. On governance, it proposes establishing a National AI Commission, an AI Ethics Board, an AI Regulatory Authority, an AI Ombudsperson Office, a National AI Safety Institute, and an AI Insurance Superfund modelled on the Road Accident Fund to compensate individuals harmed by AI-driven decisions where liability is unclear. On ethics and accountability, high-risk AI systems are to be sufficiently explainable and auditable, developers must establish traceable lines of responsibility, and mandatory gender and human rights impact assessments are required across the AI lifecycle. On data protection, the policy aligns AI governance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, mandating data minimisation, purpose limitation, and data protection by design, while also introducing intellectual property protections for large language models and requirements for mandatory watermarking. On infrastructure and skills, it calls for investment in supercomputing facilities, 5G and fibre connectivity, regional AI factories, and a National AI Skills Development Strategy spanning schools through to lifelong learning, including reskilling programmes for workers in sectors susceptible to automation. The policy further proposes real-time AI translation across all 12 official languages, the digitisation of indigenous cultural heritage, and a risk-based regulatory approach.