The Department of Basic Education will forge ahead with the publication of the 2024 matric results, but only using the candidates exam numbers.This after it filed an application to set aside the Information Regulator’s enforcement notice on the printing of matric results in newspapers. According to the Department statement, the papers were filed on Friday 13 December 2024 at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. “The appeal means that the enforcement notice has been suspended and that the Department will proceed to release results to media houses who will publish in terms of the established practice in which only exam numbers are used,” read a statement from the department. The Information Regulator had found that the department has breached personal information processing laws by failing to obtain consent from learners and their parents or guardians before publishing matric marks in newspapers.It also directed the department to give the results to the learners in a manner that is compliant with the PoPI Act.In the court papers, the department described allegations of non-compliance under the POPI Act as insufficient. “An enforcement notice under section 95 (1) of the POPI Act can only be issued and served in respect of a past or present interference with the protection of the personal information of a data subject and is therefore, by legislative design, reactive in nature so that the proactive enforcement notice served by the Information Regulator on the Department of Basic Education, with regard to the future publication of the matric examination results, is null and void,” added the statement. Meanwhile, the 2024 matric exam results are expected to be captured by 16 December 2024. The final results will be announced by 13 January 2025 and provincial departments are set to release them to candidates on 14 January 2025.
Matric results to be published in newspapers, despite privacy concerns
