AI Fake Content Strains South Africa's Election Systems

The panel was titled Unpacking Everyday Risk to Election Threats of Online Harms, and it put South Africa’s electoral machinery on the examination table. AI-generated fake content, disinformation campaigns and coordinated harassment of journalists are straining the systems that must deliver credible local government elections. How the country’s electoral and media institutions are adapting to those operational pressures formed the substance of a high-level discussion held during the Media Freedom Festival 2026, staged over three days from 14 to 16 October 2026 at the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg.

Prof Prinola Govenden of the University of Johannesburg, UNESCO Chair in Cultural Inclusivity and Equity in Digital Media, moderated. The festival was hosted by Moxii Africa, where Govenden was a partner. Joining her were representatives from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Amnesty International South Africa, the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) and the South African Human Rights Commission, each speaking to how their organisations deliver on information integrity in the run-up to the local government elections.

Govenden opened by pressing the IEC on implementation. “We are in an era of AI and social media,” she said. “Are you starting to address the fake AI that political parties are using?”

Fikile Moya, the IEC’s General Manager for Communications, set out the Commission’s operational answer. Information integrity, he argued, sits at the centre of the institution’s work. “What we do at the IEC is organise elections in such a way that they are understood to be free and fair,” he said. “In the process of making sure that elections are free and fair, information integrity is integral.” Moya explained that the Commission maintains dedicated teams tasked with detecting and debunking disinformation, so that voters have access to information that is “credible, verifiable and useful” when making electoral decisions.

Human rights organisations on the panel framed the risks in broader terms. Cassandra Dorasamy of Amnesty International South Africa warned that unchecked digital platforms can erode democratic participation and expose journalists, activists and human rights defenders to abuse. “How do we know what we know?” she asked. “We have an existential question about information integrity and what individual agency means in a context where information is shaped by algorithmic systems built on profit models.” She argued that stronger regulation and accountability mechanisms are needed to address online harms, while acknowledging the positive role platforms can play in civic mobilisation and democratic participation.

Delivery on the ground was also addressed through training. SANEF executive director Reggy Moalusi reported that the organisation, working with partners including the IEC and Moxii Africa, has trained thousands of journalists across South Africa on election reporting, information integrity and online harms. He noted that the IEC has released its disinformation code, but flagged an execution gap. “We registered our unhappiness with the IEC on that code because it largely excluded journalism matters,” he said. Progress on protecting journalists from online attacks, particularly women journalists, has stalled. “We don’t seem to be making progress on online harms directed at journalists, particularly female journalists,” he said.

Nomahlubi Khwinana, Commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission, outlined the Commission’s role in election monitoring and voter rights protection, including advocacy for persons with disabilities and broader civic education initiatives ahead of the polls.

Reflecting on the session, Govenden stressed that the festival was designed to produce outcomes rather than conversation alone. “I think one of the objectives of this year’s Media Freedom Festival is not only to be a dialogue and to conversate, but also to come up with solutions,” she said. Further details of the discussion are available at https://news.uj.ac.za/news/ujs-unesco-chair-moderates-discussion-on-misinformnation-and-election-integrity-ahead-of-local-government-elections/

The discussion underlined that safeguarding information integrity in an increasingly digital age depends on practical collaboration between electoral bodies, media organisations, civil society and human rights institutions, and on whether the systems they have built can hold up under electoral pressure. Whether the IEC’s detection teams, SANEF’s training programmes and the rights commissions’ monitoring efforts can keep pace with AI-generated disinformation at scale remains the open question heading into the polls.