NATIONAL NEWS - The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, after hearing arguments on the urgency of the matter of publishing matric results, said it would rule on whether or not it would hear the matter tomorrow morning.

Earlier, the Pretoria High Court heard an urgent application brought by the Information Regulator (IR) to obtain an interdict against the public release of the 2024 matric results.

The Department of Basic Education and AfriForum opposed the application and argued that there was no prejudice to the public if matric results were released and that the urgency was self-made.

Matric results are expected to be announced by the Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube on Monday.

With this application, the IR is trying to prevent the DBE from releasing the matric results in public media, because it maintains that this will be a violation of matriculants’ right to privacy.

When AfriForum and other parties succeeded in a case on the same issue in 2022, the judge ruled in favour of AfriForum that the release of matric results was in the public interest and that the use of examination numbers instead of the matriculants’ names provides sufficient protection for their privacy.

“An order was then issued that the results had to be published. This order is still valid, and the DBE therefore argues that it has no other choice but to oppose the IR’s instruction to withhold publication of the results.”

Bailey said the case in which the merits of the withholding or publication of the results will be decided will follow later in the year, however, she said at present the urgent application is necessary in order to clarify whether the results may be published in newspapers and on other public platforms next week, or not.

Judge Ronèl Tolmay, as much as she questioned the urgency, also questioned the prejudice if the results were to be published or not.

AfriForum legal counsel Advocate Quintus Pelser SC said the matric results have been released from 2022 without the names of the pupils and there hasn’t been any public uproar or complaints.

IR legal counsel advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane SC said the matter became urgent when the Department publicly declared defiance against the Regulator’s enforcement notice to not publish the results.

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