By Johnathan Paoli
The Pretoria High Court has dismissed the Information Regulator’s urgent bid to halt the release of the 2025 matric results, striking the application from the roll with costs in a judgment delivered on Friday.
The EFF had backed the Information Regulator in the challenge, arguing that publishing examination results risks compromising learners’ privacy.
The ruling affirms that the Department of Basic Education may continue its long-standing practice of releasing National Senior Certificate (NSC) results for publication in newspapers — beginning with the Class of 2024 on 13 January 2025.
The judgment effectively removes the final legal barrier that threatened to halt the traditional public release of results, a practice that has existed for decades and has become a key feature of South Africa’s education landscape.
The Information Regulator initially brought an urgent application in January 2025 to interdict the publishing of results, arguing that the department was in breach of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
The court dismissed that application on grounds of lack of urgency.
The Regulator then returned to court later in the year seeking a full review of the department’s methods.
This week’s decision to strike the Information Regulator’s latest urgent application from the roll means the department is free, once again, to disseminate the results to media houses.
The court also found no legal basis to halt the long-standing release system, especially as results are published without learners’ names, containing only examination numbers.
“The regulator’s stance does not reflect events in the real world. It would be a very unusual learner who, having prepared for examinations, having spent weeks sitting for various papers, and having spent weeks awaiting results, would care to recall who sat next to the learner during examinations, work out from the sequence of examination numbers, and then have thoughts about how that other learner performed in the examinations,” Judge Mark Morgan ruled.
“It is unnecessary to consider the various other issues raised in the application. That is because I hold that the manner of publication of the results does not constitute the processing of personally identifiable information. The question of infringement of the right to privacy does not arise. The other issues raised in the application are incidental to whether the students’ right to privacy was infringed. It is therefore unnecessary to address those other issues, given our holding.”
The department had earlier filed its own application to set aside the Information Regulator’s enforcement notice served in November 2024.
That enforcement notice sought to ban all future publication of matric results in newspapers, contending that even examination numbers constitute personal information requiring consent.
The department’s court papers raised several central arguments.
The enforcement notice was unlawful, because Section 95(1) of POPIA allows such notices only for past or present violations.
The Information Regulator attempted a proactive, forward-looking ban, which the department said was null and void.
The Information Regulator was already bound by an earlier court order that had permitted the publication of results in the current format—exam numbers paired with marks only.
The published data does not identify any learner and therefore does not fall within the scope of Section 11 of POPIA.
Without names, ID numbers, school information or demographic details, the department argued, the information cannot reasonably be linked to any individual.
Even if POPIA applied, the publication met the processing limitations outlined in Section 11(1)(b–f), including justification through legitimate interests and administrative necessity.
The dispute triggered widespread public debate about transparency, access, and the rights of learners.
For many families, especially in rural and low-income communities, newspaper publication remains the most accessible way to confirm results without internet access.
Civil society organisations also entered the fray.
In 2024, AfriForum issued a letter of demand to the Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube, questioning the legality of the enforcement notice and pushing for clarity on whether the department would challenge it.
Its lawyers argued that the Information Regulator had “erred in issuing the enforcement notice” and signalled readiness to pursue urgent review proceedings.
The department has argued that removing newspapers from the results ecosystem would create unnecessary barriers and exclude thousands of learners.
The Information Regulator may still pursue a full review of the department publication practice, but for now, the department has a clear path forward.
Results for the Class of 2025 will be published on 13 January 2026, with media houses expected to resume their traditional role in disseminating the matric outcomes nationwide.
INSIDE EDUCATION
