By Amy Musgrave
The Pretoria high court will hear an urgent application on Tuesday by the Information Regulator (IR) to stop the release of the 2024 matric results on media platforms.
The results will be be announced by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube next week Monday and are meant to be published by the media the following day on Tuesday, 14 January.
While the IR fined the Basic Education Department R5 million for failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued in November, which ordered the department not to publish the 2024 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam results, it has also approached the court in an attempt to stop the publication of the marks.
The IR is arguing that releasing the results in the media is a violation of matriculants’ rights to privacy.
The department, civil rights group AfriForum and Maroela Media are opposing the application.
Late last month, the IR said that the department had not provided it with an undertaking that it would not publish the results as ordered in its enforcement notice.
“The DBE had the right to appeal the enforcement notice in terms of Section 97(1) of POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act). POPIA provides, amongst others, that if an appeal is brought, the enforcement notice need not be complied with pending the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.
“The Regulator had not been served with the appeal application by close of business on 19 December 2024 despite media reports that the DBE had lodged an appeal against the decision of the Regulator in the High Court,” it said.
IR chairperson Pansy Tlakula explained that the department could not disobey lawfully issued orders of the Regulator without following the procedure stipulated in the legislation.
“The two orders issued by the Information Regulator against the DBE have the fullest legal force and effect and must be complied with by the DBE until set aside or suspended by an appeal served upon the Regulator timeously,” she said.
AfriForum’s Alana Bailey told Inside Education that it and other parties had succeeded in a case on the same issue in 2022.
A judge ruled in favour of the organisation that the release of the NSC results was in the public interest, and that by using exam numbers instead of the names of Grade 12 learners, the privacy of matriculants was sufficiently protected.
It argues that the 2022 order is still valid.
The department also maintains that the information revealed in the media does not identify a pupil, and is therefore, not in contravention of the Act.
INSIDE EDUCATION
