Legal Battle over 2024 Matric Results. Image: The Citizen.
The regulator argues that the publishing of matric results may potentially violate the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Pansy Tlakula, Chairperson of the Information Regulator, indicated that the DBE will not incur any harm if it is prohibited from releasing the results other than by issuing the matriculants’ results at their respective schools or via the departments’ SMS platform. In this way the results are accessed only by the learners without compromising their personal information, she said.
Meanwhile, the DBE is strongly opposing the ban. According to Llijia Mhlanga of the DBE, the department has consent from matriculants who wrote the exams and a court order from 2022 that permits them to publish the results without using the names or surnames of the candidates. However, chairperson Tlakula dismissed the 2022 judgement, stating the agreement at the time was between the applicants and the department, without the court having entertained the merits of the matter.
She also said that the court made no decision on the constitutionality of publishing matric results in newspapers. Tlakula attests that by virtue of the department being organs of state, they have a higher duty to respect and uphold the rule of law.
According to Tlakula, the recent actions of the department suggest that they disregard the Information Regulator’s procedures and the rule of law; hence, the Information Regulator has chosen to submit this application because of this. The matter is expected to be heard as an urgent matter at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where the DBE and the Information Regulator battle it out on Tuesday.
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