AfriForum: Umalusi’s accreditation of matric certificate proves necessity of court case to prevent rewrite

15 February 2021

AfriForum welcomes Umalusi’s announcement today that the quality council will accredit the 2020 matric certificate. According to the civil rights organisation, it proves that Umalusi’s statements last year – that the 2020 matric exam had been jeopardised because of the leaked exam papers – were premature. It further indicates that AfriForum’s court application, namely, to set aside the Department of Basic Education’s decision that all affected matriculants had to rewrite the exams, was necessary to prevent that thousands of innocent matriculants were prejudiced.

This follows AfriForum and various other applicants bringing a successful court application in December 2020 to set aside the Department’s decision that the leaked Mathematics II and Physical Science II exam papers had to be rewritten. The Department has since completed its investigation into the leaked papers and found that it had been significantly small. Despite this, the Department wanted to order all affected matriculants across the country to rewrite the papers, based on a preliminary investigation.

According to Natasha Venter, Manager for Educational Rights at AfriForum, the Department must now indicate what measures it will put in place to prevent a similar incident from occurring again. “Communication and social media platforms such as WhatsApp are part and parcel of our daily lives. We are thankful for the precedent that the judgement om the leaked papers has set. The judgement will prevent the Department in similar cases in the future from unilaterally deciding that all affected matriculants must rewrite exams without the Department conducting a proper investigation.”

Issued by Andrea van Wyk, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 15 February 2021