Matric results can be published in media, court rules

The Pretoria high court on Wednesday dismissed an urgent application by the Information Regulator for an interdict against the release of matric results in the media.

The department has announced it will publish the results in the media on January 14.

According to the department of basic education, one of the respondents, 727,121 full-time matric candidates wrote the exams in 2024.

In handing down judgment, judge Ronel Tolmay criticised the regulator for failing to show the disadvantage matric candidates would suffer should the results be published.

“The interest of the affected learners should have taken centre stage in this matter. It did not. There is nothing before me to indicate any prejudice to learners. The applicant should at least in her assessment or papers before this court have dealt with that,” Tolmay said. 

The regulator was ordered to pay the costs for the department, AfriForum, which was an interested party in the case, and two other respondents.

“It is also important to note that no evidence of any complaints by learners was placed before me. The whole dispute at this point centres on the contradictory views of the parties. The parties will be well advised to determine what will ultimately be in the interest of the learners,” Tolmay said.   

She appealed to the regulator to not bring the “complex” case dealing with Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) before the court on an urgent basis but let the contentious question over matric results be argued in detail as it affects millions of learners.

Information Regulator spokesperson Mukelani Dimba told Business Day after the judgment they did not expect the judge to raise the issue of consequence.

“It was a rather unfortunate angle that was brought into these proceedings because none of the parties raised the issue [prejudice] and if that is going to be a matter that needs to be elaborated on, then we ought to be given an opportunity to consider the issue and make our arguments on that particular issue. We were a bit surprised that the judge went in that direction,” Dimba said.

He said if the department published the results in the newspapers next week, it “will still be guilty of noncompliance with the regulator’s orders”.

In November 2024, the regulator issued an enforcement order for the department to stop publishing results arguing it contravened privacy laws.

The department took the matter up for review in December but filed court papers late. The appeal process has not yet been finalised. 

“The regulator’s orders are not suspended by the high court’s decision [on Wednesday], nor by any appeal. No appeal is currently before the court,” Dimba said.

Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga welcomed the judgment. “We know where all our learners are. The majority are in rural areas. We also know that they move around and it is cheaper for them to access results through the newspaper,” Mhlanga said.

“The judge was very clear [that] we need to put the learner at the centre of the decisions we are making.”

Update: January 8 2025
This story has been updated with new information.

schriebers@businesslive.co.za