2021 matric results can be published on media platforms, court rules

At the core of the argument was the practicality of only receiving the results at the school where they completed their matric, meaning that if a pupil is not at the school on the day, they might not receive their results timeously.

Anlé Spies, through her legal representation, Hurter Spies, said this decision would result in grave inconvenience for her as she completed her matric in Pretoria but now resides about 1,000km away from the school, outside Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape.

She said it was “critically” important for her to receive her results as quickly as possible after they become known, “since I only have a few days to prepare for the commencement of my university career at the University of the Free State”.

With the results due for release on Thursday, she said in her papers: “There will only be one week from the date of announcement of the matric results until the day on which I have to report in Bloemfontein to commence my orientation at the residence I intend staying in.

“This is unlike previous years. In the past, matric results (except for 2021) used to be announced shortly after Christmas or in early January, leaving three to four weeks before students had to report for their studies at the respective campuses of tertiary institutions they intended visiting,” said Spies.

“I can just imagine that a huge number of the more than 1-million matriculants who wrote the matric exams in 2021 are in a similar position to me in that they had moved or relocated to addresses far away from the schools they attended when they sat for the matric exams.”

She disputed the relevance of the argument that the department was fulfilling the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) as the results that used to be published in newspapers never contained the names of matriculants. “It merely contained the examination number of a specific matriculant, the examination centre where the exams were written, and an indication of subjects that a matriculant may have passed with distinction.

“In this way the publication of matric results on independent online platforms or in printed newspapers never disclosed the identity of matriculants themselves, but merely disclosed their examination numbers together with their results,” she said.