Legal gurus are expected to battle it out in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court during the appeal hearing on the withheld 2022 matric results.

The appeal hearing, which is on the court roll for tomorrow, Friday, November 7, was filed by the Department of Education against the judgment handed down by former Acting Judge Henk Roelofse.

On September 23, 2024, Roelofse directed the department to release the matric results and matric certificates of the affected learners.

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The appeal concerns the lawfulness and procedural fairness of the department’s decision to withhold the learners’ national senior certificate results for the November 2022 examination.

The department found that hundreds of learners who sat for the examination that year cheated in their answers to the question papers of certain subjects, and withheld their results.

The learners, through their legal representatives, Adv DJ Sibuyi and Attorney Ephraim Khambako, contend that the department failed to follow due process as required by Section 33 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) and the Examination Regulations.

They claim this failure has rendered the department’s decision to withhold the results unlawful and procedurally unfair.

One of the affected learners, who spoke on strict condition of anonymity, told Lowvelder that she was eagerly awaiting the appeal outcome and hoped it could be in the favour of the learners.

We are now on the third year since the Department of Education dealt us a blow by withholding our results. We have not been able to proceed to institutions of high learning as a result of this big challenge. It is our prayer and wish that the outcome of the appeal favours us because our future matter and it is our constitutional right to get educated,” said the learner.

Sibuyi is representing more than 300 learners while Khambako is representing 62. When contacted, they both declined to comment with the excuse that the matter was before the court and that anyone with interest in the matter should approach the court.

However, during the previous court hearing on the matter, Sibuyi insisted that he was against yet another postponement because that would further aggravate the learners’ problems.

“My lady, the learners’ futures are continuing to be in jeopardy here. If the matter is postponed again, the learners will again be unable to register with institutions of higher learning. The court must take into consideration that it has previously ordered the department to release the full results of these learners, but the department decided to appeal. Now they continue to waste time with their never-ending application for postponements,” Sibuyi told Justice J Vukeya at the time.

Most of the affected learners were from high schools in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality.