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Programme Director, Your Excellency Sandra Kramer, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa, Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and Heads of Mission of Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Poland to South Africa, and the Delegation of Flanders in Southern Africa, Honourable Ministers and Members of Parliament, Dr Fonteh Akum, Executive Director of the Institute for Security Studies, Mr Mosotho Moepya, Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission, Representatives of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), government, the media, civil society, academia, youth leaders, and all participants, Distinguished guests, Fellow Panellists Good morning! I am honoured to participate in this important Disinformation Dialogue 2026 and would like to express my appreciation to the Delegation of the European Union to South Africa, the Delegation of Flanders in Southern Africa, the Embassies of Spain, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland to South Africa, as well as the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), for convening this timely dialogue. Your partnership reflects a shared recognition that disinformation is not just a domestic challenge, but a global one. The theme for this Dialogue entitled “Countering Disinformation, Safeguarding Local Democracy", speaks directly to the moment South Africa finds itself in as we prepare for the upcoming Local Government Elections. Local democracy is where citizens experience government most intimately – through service delivery, ward-level participation, and coalition governance in our metros and municipalities. Yet, this very closeness can have vulnerabilities. False and misleading narratives can spread within wink of an eye in communities through platforms such as community WhatsApp groups, voice notes, word-of-mouth, and other mediums, filling information gaps long before official responses arrive. The result of this is voter confusion, eroded trust and confidence in institutions, lower participation, unstable coalitions, and weakened service delivery. Information integrity, therefore, is the foundation of democratic integrity at local level. Ladies and Gentlemen, The threat of misinformation and disinformation is real and evolving. Misinformation, which is false content shared without malicious intent, and disinformation, which are deliberately fabricated and coordinated campaigns, both exploit information vacuums. During election periods, misleading narratives about voting procedures, registration, results, and institutional integrity have repeatedly undermined public confidence, leading to high public anxiety. For example, the 2024 Reuters Institute Digital News Report found that 81% of South Africans expressed concern about misinformation during the 2024 General Elections, while complaints to Real411, the disinformation reporting platform, nearly tripled to 289 compared with 99 in the period of the 2019 General Elections. Social platforms, especially WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, X, and TikTok, accelerate the spread in our mobile-first society. Gendered disinformation further discourages women's participation in local politics, thus weakening democratic participation and interventions to build an inclusive society. Your Excellencies, A particularly serious development is the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in elections. AI has moved disinformation from a manual problem to a high-speed, high-scale threat. Generative AI tools now create hyper-realistic deepfakes of political leaders, synthetic voice notes in indigenous languages tailored to specific wards or communities, and automated bot networks that flood hyper-local channels with coordinated falsehoods within seconds. In municipal elections, where decisions on key issues such as housing, water, electricity, and jobs affect people at their doorstep, AI can fabricate councillor statements, simulate service-delivery failures, generate fake voter-registration alerts, or even produce synthetic election-result announcements. Furthermore, foreign influence operations, domestic political actors, and anonymous networks can exploit these tools to target coalition fragility, stoke service-delivery protests, or suppress youth turnout – the very demographic that is most active online, but least represented at the ballot box. Without strong safeguards, AI lowers the barrier for manipulation and makes local democracy significantly more fragile. In response to these challenges of disinformation and misinformation, our Government, through the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), has placed countering disinformation at the heart of its mandate. As the custodian of credible public information, GCIS delivers accurate, verified government messages, verifies facts before publication, counters false narratives swiftly, promotes unified messaging across all spheres of government, and provides strategic communication frameworks and rapid-response capability. The South African Government is implementing governance reforms which are not only aimed at attaining the country's developmental and strategic priorities, but are resilient mechanisms against disinformation. Through the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) 2024 – 2029, government's programme of action which guides the work of the 7th Administration, we are focusing on strengthening: - Results based planning;
- Real-time performance monitoring;
- Public reporting systems; and
- Citizen feedback mechanisms
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), which I have the honour to lead, is coordinating, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the MTDP 2024 – 2029 across all spheres of government. Our focus is to ensure that government performance is measurable, transparent and aligned with national priorities. We are advancing the strengthening of our democracy, particularly at local level, through ensuring: - Accessible data that is publicly available;
- Progress and setbacks that are reported honestly; and
- Promoting evidence-based based policy-making and decision-making
We would like to encourage our citizens to verify claims against evidence, and to narrow the space for manipulation of information. Ladies and Gentlemen, With the advent and continuous evolution of social media, we should be aware that nothing can be hidden. If you do not communicate as an institution, someone somewhere will communicate on your behalf. Our government follows a proactive, four-pillar approach that prioritises prevention over correction: - Environmental Scanning – We continuously monitor the information landscape across traditional media, social platforms, and community channels. This enables early identification of emerging risks and narrative trends, particularly those that could affect local elections.
- Early Intervention – Instead of waiting for falsehoods to take root, our government fills information gaps proactively with clear, timely, and accessible official communication. By acting swiftly, we deny disinformation the vacuum it needs to grow.
- Targeted Preparedness – Our government invests heavily in building capacity. We have rolled out comprehensive training initiatives for government communicators nationwide, covering professionalisation, digital awareness of misinformation tactics (including AI-generated content), message discipline, and rapid-response simulations. This ensures that our government speaks with one credible voice during high-risk periods.
- Continuous Refinement – Every intervention is evaluated for effectiveness. Insights are used to adapt strategies, update protocols, and strengthen systems so that our response evolves with the threat, especially with the accelerating capabilities of AI.
Through these efforts, our government has strengthened national resilience against election-related disinformation. We have systematically countered falsehoods concerning voting procedures, registration processes, the credibility of electoral institutions, coalition formations, and scams that target voter trust or exploit youth participation. By working closely with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), provinces, municipalities, fact-checking organisations, media partners, and platforms, we reduce both the spread and impact of harmful content that could destabilise local democratic processes. Your Excellencies, Our Government advances partnerships and collaboration across society in addressing our country and the world's most pressing challenges, and in building a better and inclusive society. This whole-of-society approach also applies to defeating disinformation, as governments cannot do it alone. We engage journalists and broadcasters to support accurate information flow, partner with academia and organs of civil society on shared standards, and ethical guidelines, and maintain institutional coordination with the IEC and other key stakeholders. We Defeating disinformation requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder response. As we approach the forthcoming Local Government Elections, government will continue to institutionalise excellence in government communication. We will sustain public trust beyond election cycles, adapt to emerging AI-driven challenges, and ensure that clear, consistent, and coordinated messaging underpins democratic stability and values at all levels – from ward committees to metro and municipal coalitions. In conclusion, In the recent State of the Nation Address, His Excellency President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa reflected on the significant milestone of 2026 being the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the South African Constitution. This milestone underscores the remarkable journey,mammoth and daunting progress of our nation in safeguarding our democracy. Today, we continue to advance the spirit of freedom and democracy in building a better world. With vigilance, courage and cooperation, we can safeguard local democracy in this digital age. This dialogue therefore provides a crucial opportunity to assess risks, learn from international experience, deepen understanding of AI and platform accountability, and craft practical, context-specific recommendations. Let us use this dialogue to strengthen institutional resilience, improve rapid-response mechanisms, enhance multi-stakeholder coordination, and generate actionable strategies that will safeguard our local democracy. Government's strongest asset is earned credibility – protected through vigilance, clarity, consistency, and collaboration. Let me thank our co-hosts for creating this platform. Let us leave Cape Town today with renewed commitment and concrete steps to counter disinformation and protect the foundations of our democracy. I thank you!
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