THE thousands of learners who wrote matric last year will hear today whether their results will be published in the media.
Judge Ronel Tolmay yesterday heard legal arguments by the Information Regulator (IR) on its submissions that the matter was urgent. The IR wants to interdict the Department of Basic Education (DBE) from publishing the 2024 matric results in the media. It maintained that the department has not obtained permission from the pupils for their results to be published and the department therefore must only issue the results via its SMS line or learners can fetch it at the schools where they wrote the exams.
Judge Tolmay, at the start of yesterday’s proceedings, made it clear that she will at this stage only hear arguments regarding the urgency of the matter. She refused to entertain arguments regarding the merits of the application.
If the judge rules that the matter is not urgent, it would follow that the results will be published next week.
If she finds that it is urgent then the parties involved will present their arguments on the facts of the case.
Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane SC argued on behalf of the IR that the matter is of utmost importance to the learners and the public. The judge responded that she was aware of the importance of the case but questioned why she should deal with it on an urgent basis.
The judge pointed out that the historical position over the years was that the results were published in the media and she questioned who would be prejudiced if this was the position again regarding the 2024 results.
She said she was concerned that there was a pending appeal by the department against an enforcement notice the IR issued against it in November last year, in terms of which it was ordered not to publish the 2024 results.
The IR said that after an assessment done in 2023, it was found that publishing the matric results will go against the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
In a separate matter in 2022, the court ruled in favour of publishing the matric results in the media, following an application at the time by a learner. This was after the department that year decided not to publish the results.
In an order to which all the parties consented to at the time – including the IR – it was agreed that the results will be published using the exam numbers of the learners and not their names.
Both the department and Afriforum, who opposed yesterday’s urgent application, pointed out that the IR was happy to consent to the 2022 order and did not object to the results being published these past few years. Yet, the IR has only now objected, they said, which did not render the matter urgent.
Tsatsawane countered this by arguing that it was only after the 2023 assessment done by the IR that it became clear that the publishing of the results violated the learner’s rights to protection of their personal information.
He maintained that the IR could not turn to court earlier, as it only came to light last month that the department intended not to adhere to the enforcement notice and that it intended to forge ahead in publishing the latest results.
Judge Tolmay, however, had many questions regarding the issue of prejudice. She was particularly concerned that if she granted the order for the results not to be published, whether it would not prejudice especially disadvantaged students who do not have devices to access the department’s SMS lines to see whether they had passed.
She also raised concerns about others who attended schools in rural areas and are not there anymore and who may not be in a position to return to their schools to fetch their results.