The court likened the Information Regulator’s stance to 'a poorly constructed thought experiment'
The Gauteng High Court has dismissed the Information Regulator’s bid to halt the publication of the 2025 matric results, upholding an appeal by the Department of Basic Education.
The crushing judgment in the matter was handed down on Friday.
Information Regulator’s arguments ‘fanciful’
The court dismissed the regulator’s arguments as “fanciful” and likened its stance to “a poorly constructed thought experiment”.
The judgment is the latest in an ongoing battle over whether the National Senior Certificate (NSC) results could be published in newspapers using pupils’ examination numbers.
“The regulator’s stance does not reflect events in the real world. It would be a very unusual learner who, having prepared for examinations, having spent weeks sitting for various papers, and having spent weeks awaiting results, would care to recall who sat next to the learner during examinations, work out from the sequence of examination numbers, and then have thoughts about how that other learner performed in the examinations,” Judge Mark Morgan ruled.
Privacy
Morgan said the Popia Act is concerned with preserving privacy interests.
“It is unnecessary to consider the various other issues raised in the application. That is because I hold that the manner of publication of the results does not constitute the
processing of personally identifiable information. The question of infringement of the right to privacy does not arise. The other issues raised in the application are incidental to whether the students’ right to privacy was infringed. It is therefore unnecessary to address those other issues, given our holding,” Morgan said.
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Urgent application
The Information Regulator filed an urgent application to block the release of the NSC examination results in newspapers, citing concerns about the violation of students’ privacy under the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).
However, the DBE opposed the application, with AfriForum joining the case as an interested party.
Despite the Information Regulator’s enforcement notice issued in November last year and a potential R5 million fine, the DBE planned to announce the results.
The EFF also sided with the Information Regulator in the court challenge, expressing concerns over the publication of examination results.
Publication battle
The Information Regulator argued that the results should not be published, even if no names are attached.
The arguments before the court questioned whether the media, particularly newspapers, should publish the results.
In recent years, the media has published results that show only a pupil’s unique exam number.
However, the Information Regulator’s urgent application was intended to force the DBE to comply with the enforcement notice that had been issued by the regulator on 18 November 2024, following its findings that the manner in which the DBE published the matric results was inconsistent with the provisions of the Popia Act.
Matric results
South Africa’s education regulator, Umalusi, has confirmed the 2025 matric results will be released on 12 January 2026.
The marking of examination papers will conclude on 18 December; after which the quality assurance process will take place to ensure accuracy.
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