Cape Town – The court ruling on whether matrics will be forced to rewrite the leaked maths paper 2 and physical science paper 2 next week will be known on Friday afternoon.
Considering the urgency of the matter, Judge Norman Davis, sitting at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, said on Thursday he would try to deliver his judgment around 2pm tomorrow.
He had heard four sets of applications — including that of AfriForum and the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) – that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga be interdicted from going ahead with the rewrites and her decision be reviewed and set aside.
They all believed her decision was due to "bullying" tactics by quality assurer Umalusi, who "speculated" using an inconclusive preliminary report into the leaks.
Lobby group AfriForum, acting on behalf of five matrics, represented by advocate Quintus Pelser, said the moment quality assurer Umalusi decided the exams had to be rewritten, the minister and the department simply caved in.
Pelser said the report had been compiled after only six days of investigating and that the preliminary report, published on 30 November, did not determine the full extent of the leak.
“The majority in the department was not in favour of a rewrite, but Umalusi found the integrity of both papers was compromised and a strong message had to be sent out, and closed their eyes to anything else and that was their stance.”
Pelser added: “Umalusi must tell the court if it has the right to interfere... it is telling the department what to do. The minister was just a rubber stamp for what Umalusi decided; the department just froze when Umalusi spoke.”
But advocate Dennis Fine, acting for Umalusi, said the entity could not give the go-ahead and release of the results in February knowing that the two papers had been compromised. “The whole process had been contaminated,” he said.
While Judge Davis pointed out that the investigation into the exam leakage had not yet been concluded and it seemed as if only a fraction of the matrics were involved in the leak, Fine said as they did not know the extent of the leak, a rewrite was the only option.
Advocate Wisani Sibuyi, acting for Sadtu, argued that Motshekga and her department had enough time to stop these papers when they discovered the leakage.
“They were informed there was a leak... they could have replaced the paper or recalled the exam.”
Another applicant, Etienne Ferrreira, argued that the writing of the two papers next week would be yet another super-spreader event for Covid-19. He said innocent children had to submit themselves to the Covid-19 risk to simply try and save the integrity of the examinations.
Motshekga said she had consulted all relevant stakeholders on the issue, including Umalusi, and they all agreed that the integrity of the examinations had to be protected.
Grade 12 pupil Lienke Spies said the minister took a decision regarding the most important examination of their lives without consulting a single matric.
A total of 391 000 learners sat for the maths paper 2, while 282 wrote the second paper of physical science.
Advocate Chris Erasmus, for Motshekga and the department, explained that the leak had spread across provinces.
"WhatsApp is a monster, you don't know how far it goes," Erasmus said.
He argued that the investigation might take months to finish before it could be determined how far the leak of the papers had spread, which would have a devastating effect on the pupils.
If Umalusi did not certify the results, it would also mean losing the academic year, he added.
IOL