ANOTHER complaint was filed by the Information Regulator (IR), which wanted a review of the decision of the Gauteng High Court, which favored the Department of Basic Education, by continuing to publish matric results in newspapers.
The organization went to court to stop the publication of the results, complaining that people’s information is being released, which is not in line with the Protection of Personal Information (POPIA) law. The court’s decision on Wednesday was also in favor of the department as well as the organization AfriForum which is part of this case and wants to continue publishing the results in the newspapers.
The court ruled that the results should be published using the students’ writing numbers, which was already happening.
Judges Omphemetse Mooki, Letty Molopa-Sethosa and Mark Morgan, dismissed IR’s application to review the decision to allow the department to continue publishing the results. He said he did not see that another court could reach a different decision.
The IR can still go to the appellate court to seek a reversal of the Supreme Court’s decision.
The AfriForum organization, is happy with the court’s decision and said that the publication of the results should continue. He said there is a great need to ‘continue the tradition’ of publishing results in newspapers, which has been happening in this country for years.
“We are happy that this issue has come to an end as this struggle for the publication of the results has been going on for years. It is important that the matric writers continue to receive the results in different ways, including in the newspapers,” AfriForum said in a statement.
It said the dispute started in 2022, when the department tried to stop publishing these results in newspapers.
“We went to court and it was in our favor and the department continued to publish the results. In 2024, the IR tried to stop the department from publishing the results by trying to get a court order, which was rejected. In December last year, the judges supported the move to continue publishing the results but use the students’ writing numbers.”
The IR and the department have yet to comment on the court’s decision. The department said that it is publishing the results so that students who are far away from their schools, can get their results wherever they are because they are usually released before the schools are closed.