- The Department of Basic Education says it has established that one of the matric exam papers was leaked from government's own printers.
- The department still believes a rewrite is necessary to put to bed questions relating to the credibility, integrity and fairness of the exams.
- The department will use other avenues, through its legal teams, to address concerns in the Gauteng High Court judgment which overruled a decision that the papers should be rewritten.
The Physical Sciences paper 2 exam for matrics was leaked from the government's own printers, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has established.
Although the department confirmed that a private printing company was the source of the Mathematics paper 2 exam, it established that the source of the second leaking was the government's printers.
"The Physical Sciences full paper was leaked from [the] government printers, confirming what we said in court, that while we have seen some questions from some social media, we believed that the leak was wider than what we thought. And the ongoing daily developments seem to confirm what we represented in court," director-general Hubert Mathanzima Mweli said.
The DBE has maintained that the Gauteng High Court ruling which overturned a decision that the two leaked papers should be rewritten, did not deal with the credibility, integrity and fairness of the 2020 National Senior Certificate Examination.
The department says more details about the government printers will be released later and that the Hawks, who are currently probing the matter, will deal with it.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga briefed the media on the state of readiness for the 2021 academic year on Thursday, and gave an update on the ongoing investigations into the leak.
Rewrite the 'only way'
Motshekga said the department strongly believed - and continues to believe - that a rewrite was the only way to address questions surrounding the integrity, credibility and the fairness of the papers.
She said the department had established that the leak was not localised, but widespread, and that all nine provinces were implicated.
"We must say that some of the findings of the High Court are discordant with applicable basic education legislative provisions; and some findings were made against the department on issues that were not even raised in the court papers," Motshekga said.
The department said while it was not appealing the ruling, its legal team was exploring other avenues to address "some of the errors" it picked up from the judgment.
News24 previously reported that Judge Norman Davis grappled with issues relating to who made the decision to have the matrics rewrite the examinations.
Davis also referred to the minutes of a meeting where the decision to have the candidates rewrite the exams was taken.
"Therein the DG (director-general) does not feature as a decision maker, but the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) does. The CEM is however not a formal body nor an administrator which features in the regulations nor and neither is it empowered thereby to take the impugned decision," Davis said in the judgment.
The judge added: "The DG never featured in these documents or sequence of events as the decision maker. Any contention by the minister to the opposite is clearly an afterthought, devoid of a factual basis and is rejected."
But Motshekga said on Thursday that the meeting referred to by the judge was one in which she was about to announce the decision after she had consulted stakeholders.
Motshekga said:
The department decided against appealing the judgment to avoid leaving candidates traumatised and uncertain on whether they would have to rewrite the exams or not.
Motshekga said exam papers for three subjects were leaked: Business Studies, Physical Sciences and Mathematics.
Results expected in February
She said, fortunately, the department had received information in advance and an alternative question paper was issued for Business Studies.
Motshekga added that there were multiple hoaxes that question papers were leaked, but according to the DBE's investigations, the three were the only ones that could be confirmed. Because an alternative paper was written for Business Studies, it was no longer regarded a problem.
Marking for the examinations will commence on 4 January and the department is expected to report on irregularities to the council for quality assurance, Umalusi, and wait for it to make an announcement on the integrity, credibility and fairness of the examinations.
The department is expected to release the matric results on 22 February and candidates are expected to receive their certificates on 23 February.
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