• The Department of Basic Education will go through with publishing the matric results through newspapers.
• This is despite instructions from the Information Regulator of South Africa barring the publishing of results citing POPIA infringement.
• DBE argues that since the regulator can only prove present or past infringements on POPIA, it can’t preemptively issue an enforcement notice.

Despite the Information Regulator barring the Department of Basic Education from publishing the yearly matric results in newspapers across South Africa come 14th January 2025, a well-timed appeal from the department will see this method of announcing results still happening next year.

In November the Information Regulator released a set of instructions telling the DBE to refrain from publishing matric results in newspaper, which is a practice South African Januaries have seen since at least 1981.

“The [Information Regulator] found that the department was not compliant with section 11 of POPIA and was in breach of the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information by failing to obtain consent for the publication of matric results from the pupils or parents/guardians of pupils who sat for the 2023 national senior certificate examinations,” it said at the time.

“It directed that the results of the 2024 matriculants should not be published in newspapers, and must make these results available to the pupils using methods that are compliant with POPI Act.”

In a statement, DBE says that an enforcement notice of this particular section of Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) can only be issued for past or present breaches of personal information, and not proactively for an assumed future breach like the publishing of the results.

It also adds that the Information Regulator has “failed to demonstrate” non-compliance of the act, and since the results are yet to be published, it can’t demonstrate this.

“The Information Regulator did not take into consideration the factors highlighted by the department in its court papers,” explained DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.

“The department will therefore proceed to release the results in the newspapers, because with the appeal being lodged, it means the enforcement notice has now been suspended”.  

Importantly, the department will release the results only using the examination number of learners and not their names. It claims that it is following correct POPIA procedures.

Years ago, the DBE itself said that the publishing of results publically can be harmful to learners.

“The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is aware of the adverse effect of this practice, and therefore in the last few years, the results are first released at the school at 08h00 in the morning, and thereafter the newspapers are allowed to release the results. The results are available to the learners at school, under the supervision of the school principal,” it wrote in 2011.

“The DBE is aware that learners that have performed poorly may respond negatively to the results, and therefore educators are on standby to counsel the learners.”

In 2022, it launched its own effort to stop the publishing of the results in the media, but this was overturned in the Pretoria courts after AfriForum and Afrikaans-language publication Maroela Media interjected the plan

[Image – Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash]