Home Affairs Minister suspends 2 senior officials for AI hallucations in immigration policy document

PRETORIA, GAUTENG— The Department of Home Affairs suspended senior officials after AI hallucinations were found in an immigration policy this week, with one official being suspended on 30 April 2026.

According to News24, hallucinations were found in 102 of the 148 references in the Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, which cabinet recently approved. Neither reference was verifiable or traceable. News24 also found several academic titles cited in the document which were fictitious.

Other reports or documents could not be traced by the given references and others cited existing titles with wrong authors and wrong publication dates. The department suspended a chief director on 30 April and will be suspended officially on 4 May.

What did South Africans say?

Netizens were just as stunned about the hallucinations in the immigration document as they were about the withdrawn draft AI policy which also contained AI hallucinations.

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CertifiedEcoTourismDoyenne said:

“From comms to DHA. Cicici.”

Shomza said:

“So the DA minister of Home Affairs is also involved in AI shenanigans.”

Grace Mabumbulu said:

“You’re framing the story to let the responsible DA minister off the hook.”

Rrwe Moruapheko said:

“So basically the Minister found a complete white paper which was done by the previous administration, and decided that they want wholesale changes to the white paper and in a compressed timeframe so they just employed AI bots.”

AfricanWisdomHub said:

“The one who does not know, and does not know that he does not know, is dangerous.”

Dakeni joked:

“DA and A stands for artificial.”

Source: Briefly News