Matric results: IR says 2022 court order doesn't prevent it from performing its functions

JOHANNESBURG - The Information Regulator has defended its legal challenge seeking to interdict the Department of Basic Education (DBE) from publishing the National Senior Certificate exam results for 2024.

It argued that the 2022 order does not prevent the regulator from performing its functions.

Advocate Kennedy Tsatsawane said its incorrect to assume that the clock started ticking after the January 2022 order was handed down, allowing the publication of matric examination results.

It argued that there was no finding that declared the publishing of the matric results lawful.

Section 89, subsection 1 of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) empowers the Information Regulator to conduct an assessment on its own initiative or at the behest of another party on whether processing of personal information is in compliance with the act.

In January 2023, the regulator invoked this section and ultimately served the DBE with an enforcement notice in November 2024.

This, despite the order of the high court that granted the publication of matric results.

However, Tsatsawane argued that the order had no bearing on the regulator.

"The order granted by Justice Millar does not have the effect of preventing them from performing a long list of their obligations. The order of Justice Millar regulated the release of matric results that were written in 2021. It is in 2023, that the regulator started to conduct the assessment which then gave birth to the enforcement notice."

Tsatsawame argued that a finding that the high court order of 2022 has legal effects for the regulator would prohibit it from performing its statutory functions.