Afrikaaner lobby group AfriForum is elated about its court victory regarding the publication of Matric results in newspapers.
The Information Regulator (IR) Advocate Pansy Tlakula had filed an urgent application asking the High Court in Pretoria to prevent the Department of Basic Education (DBE) from publishing the 2024 Matric results in newspapers.
AfriForum then requested to be involved in the court case as a co-respondent together with the DBE.
Tlakula opined that publication of the said results would be in violation of the privacy of the Matric learners as their information would be published without their consent in the newspapers.
However, AfriForum’s lawyer Advocate Quintus Pelser argued in court on Tuesday that after the 2022 court order, Matric results were published in newspapers without any public uproar.
DBE lawyer Advocate Marius Oosthuizen centred his case around the fact that the Information Regulator’s case was based on a “self-created urgency” as she took close to three years before opposing the 2022 court order that allowed for the publication of the Matric results.
Information Regulator’s lawyer Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane asserted in court that the enforcement order issued by his client Advocate Pansy Tlakula against the DBE is enforceable until it is declared invalid by a court of law.
He also indicated that the matter was urgent as the said 2022 court order doesn’t have relevance to the enforcement order, and that if it was allowed to prevail, then it (the 2022 court order) would prevent the Information Regulator from carrying out her constitutionally- enshrined duties going forward.
Tsatsawane also indicated that ” the clock started ticking only when the DBE recently indicated that it would proceed to publish the results in the newspapers, and not after the 2022 court order.”
Judge Ronel Tolmay confined herself on the urgency issue without dwelling much on the invasion of privacy matter, and ruled that the Information Regulator had waited for close to three years before bringing the matter of the publication of Matric results to court, and that the matter was therefore not urgent, and that the Matric results may be published in the newspapers.
DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told Tshwane Talks that the decision by the DBE to oppose Information Regulator Pansy Tlakula was not out of spite but in obedience to the 2022 court decision which ordered the DBE to publish the Matric results.
MelodiForum Afrika Borwa chairperson Hlohi Malema has expressed disappointment regarding the outcome of the court case saying “the back-and-forth between the Information Regulator and the DBE is unnecessary because the DBE should use examination centres as venues where learners will receive their official results.”
She then went on to say: ” What value does the publication of these results add to the educational sphere in South Africa, especially for the Black child?”
Be that as it may, AfriForum Head of Cultural Affairs Alana Bailey welcomed the outcome of the case.
“We regard this as victory for Matriculants of 2024 and we hope that the merits of the case will be heard soon in court so as to prevent a similar issue from arising regarding the 2025 Matriculants,” she said.
“We agree with the judge that it is unfortunate that the case was left up until late by the Information Regulator,” said an elated Bailey.