BUKEKA is far from the end of the court battle to stop the publication of matric results in newspapers. This dispute is between the Department of Basic Education and the Information Regulator (IR).
The IR opposes the publication of these results in the newspapers, while the Department maintains that it continues to publish the results because some students are away from schools when the results are released at the beginning of the year.
It is expected that the High Court of Johannesburg, will decide this week that it agrees with the IR, to appeal the decision of the same court last year, which rejected the request of this organization regarding whether these results are still published in the newspapers.
Recently, this court heard the submissions of the lawyers of the Department and IR on this matter. The IR complains that the publication of the results in newspapers endangers the information of the students under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
Despite the Ministry stating that it publishes these results using only students’ writing numbers, not their names and surnames, the IR said that this is the same as disclosing the students’ information.
The IR wants to be allowed by this court to forward its decision that this matter will be heard in the Court of Appeal. If this court finally agrees that the IR has forwarded this decision, that will mean that the matter concerning POPIA will be reconsidered by this court.
For now, the decision to publish the results in the newspapers is on hold. AfriForum joined the Ministry in court as it is in line with its decision to continue with the publication of the results in the newspapers.
This issue of results has been debated in the newspapers for years. In the past, students’ names and surnames were published in the newspapers, but it was finally changed after the pressure that this made some of the students kill themselves if they did not see them in the papers. This made the Department decide to finally publish the students’ writing numbers.