By LehlohonoLo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has dismissed the Information Regulator’s (IR’s) urgent application to interdict the publication of the 2024 matric results in the newspapers.
The IR’s application followed an enforcement notice it served on the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in November, in which the regulator found that publishing the results in this manner was in breach “of the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information” under the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act.
The IR ordered the DBE to, among other things, provide an undertaking that it would not publish the 2024 results in newspapers within 31 days, and turned to the courts after it failed to do so.
Judge Ronel Tolmay found the matter was not urgent and struck it from the roll with costs.
The judge stressed that she did not deal with the merits of the application, but only dealt with urgency at this stage. She found that the IR’s urgency, in rushing to court at the last minute, was self-created.
The IR said it had no choice but to turn to court now, as it became clear that the department refused to abide by an enforcement notice issued to it by the IR, ordering the department not to publish the results.
This followed an assessment done by the IR on whether it would infringe on the learners’ rights to protection of public information if the results were published in the media. It was found to be the case, and the IR subsequently ordered the department not to publish the results this year.
The department, however, issued an appeal against the enforcement notice.
Judge Tolmay said the report on the assessment done was already issued by the IR 10 months ago, and it knew the stance of the department on the matter.
However, at the busiest time for the department — in December — it opted to rush to court. This, she said, is self-created urgency.
She also said she cannot ignore the fact that the department will appeal the enforcement notice.
The judge said the results had been published in the media for years and she questioned why things should be different this year. This means matric results will be published in the media on January 14 when they are released.