AI Report on Southern Africa

		

http://misa.org

At the national level, South Africa’s 4IR Strategy is human-centred and envisions artificial
intelligence, but it has yet to be implemented. A dedicated national AI plan would also give
a solid foundation for adopting a consistent approach to AI and addressing the ethical and
societal issues it brings. South Africa’s Data Protection Law addresses automated decisionmaking and algorithmic transparency among the rights the legislation protects. However,
the South African Information Regulator has not yet addressed issues related to the usage of
AI systems. Concerns abound about using AI for surveillance and its possible influence on
the digital divide. There is also an urgent need to address structural prejudice caused by the
lack of a digital footprint and representation for a large portion of South African society.

Zimbabwe
South Africa is the only country in the region on the Center for Artificial Intelligence and
Digital Policy (CAIPD) Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values 2022 report. Zimbabwe
will receive a score of 3/12 using the CAIDP’s democratic, AI, and democratic values index
scoring template. Zimbabwe does not have any laws, regulations, or policies that are specific
to AI. However, the government has shown interest in developing AI and has established a
National Competitiveness Commission to promote innovation and technological advancement
in the country.
Zimbabwe does not have a national AI strategy or policy to guarantee fairness, accountability,
and transparency in all AI systems and commits to these principles in developing, procuring,
and implementing AI.
Zimbabwe’s new ICT policy for the period 2021–2025 in Section 3.9 b states that the Zimbabwe
government will provide policy and legal framework for AI in e-learning, e-health, e-business,
and all other e-applications across all sectors - political, social, and economic. This suggests
that there are plans to establish a policy and legal framework for using artificial intelligence
in the country.
The government established the Zimbabwe Centre for High-Performance Computing
(ZCHPC) 7 in terms of Section 6 (b) as read with Section 69 of the Manpower Planning and
Development Act [Chapter 28:02]. The Statutory Instrument (SI) 168 of 2019 was gazetted,
which establishes and governs the ZCHPC operations. The Zimbabwe High-Performance
Computing Project was conceived in October 2011 and HPC was identified as one of the key
solutions to assisting the nation, region, and beyond in solving challenges associated with
climate change, food security, unclean water, poverty, diseases, energy and human capital
development. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial, Space, And Earth Sciences are
listed as some of the key domains of ZCHPC. Zimbabwe has not publicly endorsed the OECD/
G20 AI principles.

AI Oversight
Currently, there needs to be an independent body or a single responsible entity for AI oversight.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) is the designated Data
Protection Authority.
7
16

Zimbabwe Centre for High Performance Computing (ZCHPC) https://zchpc.ac.zw/

Select target paragraph3