• Private company Edumarks claims to be selling the 2024 matric results earlier than the department’s release date.
• According to the Department of Basic Education, Edumarks is selling the results illegally but it unlikely to be involved in the results breach.
• Minister Siviwe Gwarube confirmed on Monday that the matric results system was breached but could not confirm if the results were leaked.

A few days before the official release of the matric exam results for the class of 2024, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) revealed that the systems that contains and verifies the final results was breached and that there is a potential that they were leaked online.

One website has been advertising access to 2024 matric results early for a fee, and has been doing so, it claims, since 2022. This is Edumarks – part of the so-called Edumarks group or private companies – and has been confirmed by various sources to sell legitimate matric results over the years.

“The matric results should be free,” says Edumarks on X where it has been brazenly active all day for someone committing fraud and has been responding to queries. It says it only charges for “development costs.” A reason eerily similar as to why the WakaTV pirates charge an upfront fee, as well as a subscription.

“We’re doing what our government is struggling to do. Instead of using taxpayers’ money to build a system that’s POPI compliant, they’d rather waste it on a rather pointless legal battle,” Edumarks said.

The site is offline as of around 11:00 on Monday 13th January 2025, either because it was taken down by authorities as part of the ongoing investigation between the DBE and the Hawks or because its newfound media attention drew too much traffic for its servers to handle.

Many users on social media are directing the DBE towards the website, including notable users like Yusuf Abramjee. It turns out that the DBE already knew about Edumarks.

In a GroundUp report, the DBE confirms that they are aware of Edumarks and after “intensive scrutiny” concluded the website to be a “bogus business offering a service it cannot deliver on.”

After initially looking over the website this morning, we thought the same as the DBE. It wouldn’t be the first time scammers took advantage of stressed and anxious learners in South Africa to steal from them.

However, GroundUp has confirmed that the website does indeed send learners legitimate matric results. They used the matric examination number of a learner from last year and this year, both times sending accurate matric results that the department also confirmed were legitimate.

“They are committing fraud on multiple levels” said the department, concluding that the site was not involved in the latest breach but instead is being run by someone who has access of the matric results prior to release.

The only body that has the full results prior to release, after the DBE, is Universities South Africa. This means that either someone at the department or in one of South Africa’s many public universities is colluding with the operators of Edumarks to illegally sell the 2024 matric results.

It is also notable that Edumarks has the original matric results, and not those that have been remarked and are usually released in March.

While there is no punishment for learners accessing their marks early via Edumarks, there is also no guarentee from the illegal website that the marks will be sent for the R99.90 fee. It is a safer bet to wait until 14th January for the full results to be given on the official DBE website.

[Image – Sourced from Edumarks]