Court overturns nopublishing of matric results decision

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has overturned a decision by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to publicise the results of the final National Senior Certificate (NSC).

This comes after civil rights organisation AfriForum, Maroela Media and a matriculant applied to the court to have the decision changed.

Afriforum has welcomed the ruling. “It is in the public interest that this information is shared on public platforms and that is one of the reasons why we brought this application.

“We are delighted that the court agreed with us,” said Natasha Venter, the manager of education rights at AfriForum.

This comes after Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga announced that the results would not be published in order to comply with the provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).

In a statement released by the department, they will be releasing the results to the stakeholders that requested the results and the conditions of the court ruling will be taken into account as well as the provisions of the Popia.

In additions to viewing their results on media platforms the department also urges candidates to register on the department’s website to view the results when they become available.

Candidates will have to go through a two-step verification process before getting confirmation of their registration and an ID number and candidate number will be required.