Anlé Spies who wrote matric takes on education department over publishing results in media

Anle Spies during her matric farewell. She is is taking the department of education to court over the publishing of matric results. Picture: Supplied

Anle Spies during her matric farewell. She is is taking the department of education to court over the publishing of matric results. Picture: Supplied

Published Jan 17, 2022

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Pretoria - In publishing the matric results in the media and online later this week, the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) will not encroach on the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act), as no personal information about the matriculants will be released.

As before, only the exam number of those who had passed, will be published, Anlé Spies, who wrote matric last year and is waiting her exam results, saId in an affidavit filed at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

Spies will on Tuesday face the Department of Basic Education during an urgent application, in which she is the first applicant, while AfriForum is cited as the second applicant.

As more than a million pupils who wrote matric last year are awaiting their fate, it will be up to the court to decide whether or not to allow the results to be made public on media platforms.

The department announced on Sunday that it will not oppose the application but that it will abide by the decision of the court.

Spies and AfriForum served court papers on, among others, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga last Friday.

The legal action is to oppose the Department of Basic Education’s sudden decision not to publish the 2021 matric results in the media.

For the first time in history, the department announced that matric exam results will no longer be published on media platforms.

DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga issued a letter last week stating that the DBE recognised that section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provided that everyone had the right to privacy.

Spies, however, said in her affidavit that no personal information of a pupil will be published, as apart from an exam number, which is only known by the school and the matriculant, the candidates are not identified.

This practice has been followed over the years.

Spies is the second of her siblings to take on the department. Her sister Lienke Spies, a bit more than a year ago also took on the department - and won.

Lienke at the time scored a victory for hundreds of thousands of matrics when she opposed the department’s decision that matrics had to rewrite maths and chemistry papers after exam leaks came to light.

Her sister Anlé meanwhile in her latest bid, said in court papers that as she is not in Pretoria at the moment, she will be unable to access her exam results from the school in Waverley where she wrote her final exams.

Spies said she is visiting her mother on a farm in the Eastern Cape and as she has to report to the University of the Free State within a week of receiving her results, it is vital that she, aand many other students, are able to access their results via the various media platforms.

Pretoria News