Matric results legal showdown

THE Information Regulator (IR) is set to appear in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, this week to apply for leave to appeal a recent judgment that permits the publication of matric results in newspapers and on online platforms.

- ZELDA VENTER [e-mail]

The IR will argue that the High Court erred in its interpretation of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Counsel for the IR will argue that in confining the whole case to "whether the manner of publication of results constitutes publication of personally identifiable information," the court erred in its finding.

A full court (three judges) in December concluded that publishing the matric results by only using a learner's exam number did not infringe on POPIA.

The issue of whether matric results should be published or not has been a subject of legal debate since 2022. The courts have, during all those applications, ruled in favour of publishing the results, but made it clear that this may only be done by using exam numbers and not the names of the candidates.