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South Africa's electoral commission has bound political parties to label AI-generated campaign material as synthetic content before distribution, judged against its nature, purpose and likely consequence
The labelling duty is not absolute. It is qualified by a proportionality test that campaign lawyers will be arguing about long before anyone is sanctioned under it.
Bottom line: Binding. The Code took effect on 4 September 2026 when it was issued and gazetted, and it runs until the local government election results are declared.
Who this affects: South African election law and political party compliance counsel, campaign agencies and ad buyers retained by parties or candidates, and POPIA advisers working on campaign targeting.
Issue date: Issued and published 4 September 2026 in Government Gazette No. 55341. Two separate 36 hour clocks start on awareness, not on publication.
What changed: The Code defines synthetic content as material generated through the use of artificial intelligence and attaches a pre-distribution labelling duty to it, qualified by the content's nature, purpose and likely consequence.
Analysis: The definition is broad and the sanction hook is real, but item 12(c) attaches a proportionality test to the labelling duty, so compliance is a judgement call rather than a checkbox.
Primary sources: Electoral Code of Conduct Countering Disinformation (Notice 4138 of 2026)
- Instrument (EN)
- Electoral Code of Conduct Countering Disinformation in the Local Government Elections
- Authority
- Electoral Commission of South Africa
- Jurisdiction
- South Africa, local government elections
- Status
- Issued and published in Government Gazette No. 55341 of 4 September 2026
- Bindingness
- Binds political parties and candidates. Item 2(b) applies it to their activities whether undertaken directly or through any person acting on their instruction, authority or for reward
- Issue date / next deadline
- Issued 4 September 2026. Reporting and retraction duties run 36 hours from awareness
- Legal basis
- Section 88 of the Local Government: Municipal Electoral Act, 2000 (Act No. 27 of 2000)
- Primary source
- https://18a66295-3a0f-41fb-a13d-9849edd3b2a3.usrfiles.com/ugd/18a662_9f32c97c573e4b50bb204e3cf0cca591.pdf
What does the Code actually require about AI-generated material?
Item 4(h) defines synthetic content as "audio, image, video or text that is generated through the use of artificial intelligence". The definition covers text, not only audio, image and video.
The operative duty sits in item 12(c). Every party and candidate commits "to ensure that any synthetic content is appropriately labelled and marked as 'synthetic content' prior to distribution".
Read the rest of that clause before treating it as a bright line. The duty applies "taking into consideration the nature, purpose and likely consequence of the content, the extent to which it comprises synthetic content and the public importance in avoiding confusion or uncertainty regarding the authenticity thereof". That is a proportionality test written into the duty itself.
Who is bound, and does it reach the agencies?
Item 2(b) applies the Code to all election-related communications, conduct and campaign activities by parties and candidates, "whether undertaken directly or through any person acting on their instruction, authority or for reward, both online and offline".
That last phrase is the one agencies should read twice. The Code binds the party or candidate; it does not by its terms make the contractor an independently bound party. What it does is pull work done for reward inside the scope of what the party answers for.
Item 11 is not about platforms' own duties. It commits every party and candidate to put in place measures covering transparency in political advertising, monitoring of their own or associated online platforms for disinformation including third-party user-generated content, rapid public correction, and under item 11(c) maintaining "an appropriate record of any disinformation disseminated by or on behalf of the party or candidate, posted on their own or associated online platforms, for purposes of notifying the Commission and any investigation process".
What are the two 36 hour clocks?
Item 12(a) commits parties and candidates to report disinformation or suspected disinformation distributed via an online platform to the designated Online Complaints Mechanism "within 36 hours of becoming aware of this". The Commission designates Real 411 by name for that purpose.
Item 6(d) is the other clock. Parties commit to take reasonable steps, as soon as reasonably practicable but no later than 36 hours of becoming aware, to publicly retract and correct disinformation or other false and misleading information disseminated by them, for them or on their behalf, and to publicly censure the person responsible. The censure limb is easy to miss and does real work: it obliges a party to name its own.
Both clocks run from awareness rather than from publication. The Code does not require an awareness log and does not make one determinative; what it does require, at item 11(c), is an appropriate record of any disinformation disseminated by or on behalf of the party or candidate and posted on their own or associated online platforms, for notifying the Commission and for any investigation.
What happens if a party ignores it?
Item 15 provides that any contravention or failure to comply "constitutes a breach and is subject to sanction as contemplated under the Act". The Code does not itself set a penalty schedule; it routes to the Municipal Electoral Act.
Item 10 is the prohibition side. Parties undertake not to use, encourage or sponsor any technology or tool that gives rise to or amplifies disinformation, including deceptive synthetic content and inauthentic online behaviour such as fake accounts or automated bots.
Item 10(b) separately addresses micro-targeting of falsehoods based on confidential or sensitive personal information or inherent characteristics, referencing the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013.
What we did not verify
What we opened: the full six page notice and schedule as published, retrieved directly and read end to end. The gazette header on the document reads "STAATSKOERANT, 04 September 2026 No. 55341", and that number appears six times across the document.
Quotations are reproduced with ASCII punctuation in place of the typographic quotation marks used in the gazette, which is a house typesetting convention and not a change to any word. What we did not open: the Municipal Electoral Act sanction provisions that item 15 routes to, so we do not state what penalty any given breach attracts. We also did not review any Real 411 process documentation. This piece covers the AI and synthetic-content provisions and the deadlines attached to them; the Code also carries broader duties at items 3, 6 to 9, 11 and 13 to 14 that we do not summarise here.
What we refuse to claim: we do not say the labelling duty is absolute, because item 12(c) carries a proportionality test on its face. The notice header carries both an unfilled notice-number placeholder and the number 4138, which we read from a two-column layout, so we state the number without presenting the header as a verbatim quotation. We do not claim the Code imposes duties directly on online platforms, and we do not claim it is the first South African instrument of its kind, because the document does not say so.
Informational analysis for working professionals, not legal advice. Confirm how any rule applies to your situation with qualified counsel.
Both 36 hour clocks run from the moment someone in the campaign becomes aware, not from publication, so the practical question is who inside a campaign is deemed to know and when. The Code does not mandate an awareness log, but item 11(c) does require an appropriate record of disinformation disseminated by or on behalf of the party and posted on its own or associated online platforms, and the labelling duty at item 12(c) is judged against the content rather than applied as a fixed rule. Decide now who keeps that record and who signs off a synthetic content label.
Source File
Open the notice and confirm three things: the definition at item 4(h), the labelling duty and its proportionality wording at item 12(c), and the 36 hour reporting duty at item 12(a) with Real 411 designated in the Commission's own designation paragraph.
'synthetic content' means audio, image, video or text that is generated through the use of artificial intelligence. ยท Electoral Code of Conduct Countering Disinformation, item 4(h), 4 September 2026
FAQ
Does the Code ban AI-generated campaign material?
No. Material is not prohibited merely because it was generated with AI. It must be labelled and marked as synthetic content before distribution, judged against its nature, purpose and likely consequence. Labelling does not cure anything else: item 10(c) still prohibits deceptive content including synthetic content intended to mislead, and the other prohibitions continue to apply.
Is the labelling duty absolute?
No. Item 12(c) qualifies it by the nature, purpose and likely consequence of the content, the extent to which it comprises synthetic content, and the public importance in avoiding confusion about authenticity.
Does it apply to a campaign agency we hired?
Item 2(b) reaches conduct undertaken through any person acting on a party's or candidate's instruction, authority or for reward. The duty runs through the party that instructed the work.
How long does the Code last?
Item 2(a) makes it binding from the date it is issued and published by notice in the Government Gazette until the date on which the election results are declared.
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