Friday | December 11, 2020

The North Gauteng High Court sitting in Pretoria reversed the decision by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to have the 2020 examination two papers of grade 12 leaked to be written again. 

Mathematics and Physical Science examination (both) paper two were supposedly available before the time for writing to an unknown number of pupils.

The court held that the rewrite decision of these papers by DBE Minister Angie Motshekga was unconstitutional and thus, it must be set aside.

The winners

AfriForum, joined by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), filed court papers to push back against rewrite. And Judge Norman Davis ruled in their favour on Friday the 11th of December: that is the DBE’s nationwide rewrite decision must be reviewed because it was irregular and unlawful.

As it were, the move challenged in court was that DBE planned for both papers to be rewritten by all matriculants. Mathematics was scheduled for the 15th while Science for the 17th of December 2020.

The alleged leak

The story went that an employee attached to a supplier of matriculants’ papers was linked with the leak. According to the Department, the examination papers were allegedly scanned and circulated through social media.

Umalusi, the quality assurance body of the department, after its investigation it found that the integrity of the examination – for Maths and Science papers two in particular – was compromised.