Cape Town — The Information Regulator (IR) is set to submit an urgent application to get an interdict against the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to prevent the release of the 2024 matric results in the media.
The application is set to be heard in the Pretoria High Court today, as the matric results are set to be announced next week. The IR had fined the DBE R5 million for failing to comply with an enforcement notice which ordered the department to say it would not publish the matric results.
According to TimesLIVE, the IR approached the court on an urgent basis to stop the publication, which the DBE opposed. AfriForum and Maroela Media were also interested parties in the case.
AfriForum argued that the regulator was trying to prevent the department from releasing the results in the media as it argued it was a violation of the matriculants’ rights to privacy.
AfriForum’s Alana Bailey said the group and other parties had succeeded in a similar case in 2022.
Bailey said the judge ruled in AfriForum’s favour that the release was in the public interest and the use of examination numbers instead of names was enough protection of privacy.
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Bailey said an order was then issued in 2022 that the results had to be published. She said this order was still valid.
According to IOL, the IR’s Pansy Tlakula said in the papers before the High Court that the DBE would not suffer any harm if it were interdicted today. She said the results should only be accessed by learners without compromising their personal information.
“The DBE only has to give the matric results to the relevant learners or their authorised guardians or parents. The Information Regulator and the learners stand to suffer harm by the publication of the 2024 matric results in the media,” Tlakula said.
The DBE’s Elijah Mhlanga said the department has received consent from candidates who wrote their exams and a 2022 court order in which Judge Anthony Millar ordered the publication of the results – without using the names or surnames of the candidates – also gives them a right to publish the results.
Tlakula meanwhile said in her affidavit that by virtue of being organs of state, the respondents (the department) have a higher duty to respect and uphold the rule of law.
“The respondents have, however, recently acted in a manner which indicates that they do not respect the rule of law and the Information Regulator’s processes. It is for this reason that the Information Regulator has decided to bring this application,” Tlakula said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
