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Regulation Tracker / South Africa

Draft Policy on Artificial Intelligence for the Judiciary in South Africa

Office of the Chief Justice / South African Judiciary

last revised 2026-04-01last verified 2026-09-041 versioncountry page →

PolicyProposedProhibitionSupervisionCompetenceRecord-keeping

map categories:Judges' use of AIAI barred from deciding casesCourts' own AI deploymentClient data in AI toolsVendor due diligence

Unverified: we have not yet opened the official document at the linked address. The record is listed for completeness and excluded from search indexes until confirmed.

A draft policy circulated for comment by the Office of the Chief Justice in April 2026 setting binding standards for responsible, ethical, secure and transparent AI use in the South African Judiciary. It distinguishes adjudicative from administrative functions, prohibits AI from adjudicative work, and imposes an explainability requirement. Not adopted as of 4 September 2026.

Applies to
judges, court-staff
Effective
See version history
Current version
Draft for comment · 01 Apr 2026
Last verified
04 Sept 2026
Official text
www.judiciary.org.za/images/news/2026/FINAL%20ADOPTED%202026%20Judicia…

What the document requires

  • AI systems are assistive tools only and may not substitute for judicial reasoning, discretion or decision-making.
  • AI is expressly prohibited from any adjudicative function, including evaluating evidence, assessing witness credibility, interpreting or applying law, generating substantive legal reasoning, and determining bail, sentence or risk.
  • Any AI system deployed in the Judiciary must produce outputs that are intelligible and open to scrutiny (explainability requirement).
  • Draws a clear distinction between adjudicative and administrative functions.

Version history

VersionDateWhat changedSource
Draft for commentcurrent2026-04-01Circulated for comment in April 2026; referenced and directed to be finalised by resolution 5.2 of the 2026 Judiciary Conference (16 July 2026). The draft text itself is not published at a stable official URL. Month-only date: the source gives the month, so the 1st is recorded as the date. The draft policy text is not published at a stable official URL; the record rests on the Judiciary Conference resolutions and press, so it is unverified.official

Sources

Cite this record

SafeLegalAI Legal AI Regulation Tracker, "Draft Policy on Artificial Intelligence for the Judiciary in South Africa" (Office of the Chief Justice / South African Judiciary, Draft for comment, 2026-04-01), safelegalai.com/regulation/south-africa/za-ocj-draft-ai-policy-judiciary (accessed 2026-09-04). Data: CC BY 4.0.

More official documents in South Africa