AfriForum today in a lawyer’s letter to Angie Motshekga, the Minister of Basic Education, demanded a progress report regarding the investigation into the two leaked 2020 final matric exam papers. This follows after the civil rights organisation, as well as other applicants brought a successful application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on 11 December 2020 that Motshekga’s decision – which entails that all matriculants must rewrite the leaked papers – be set aside.
This follows after the final exam papers in both Mathematics II and Physical Science II were leaked in November 2020 and the Department instructed that all matriculants need to rewrite the exam – notwithstanding the fact that only a provisional investigation was done at the time. Judge Norman Davis however adjudicated that this decision is unreasonable.
According to Natasha Venter, Manager of Education Rights at AfriForum, it does however not mean that the investigation can now simply be swept under the carpet. “AfriForum wants to ensure that the integrity of the 2020 matric certificate is beyond reproach and that the offenders be held accountable. We therefore want to know if the investigation is making progress, if any suspects have been identified yet and if the investigation will be concluded before Umalusi must accredit the matric certificates before the end of February 2021.”
It has already been more than two months since the papers were leaked and more than a month has elapsed since the court judgement. “It is now time that the Department starts to give feedback regarding the progress of the investigation. The guilty parties must be brought to book to ensure that the integrity of the matric certificate is beyond reproach, as well as to serve as an example so that this type of fraud does not take place again,” says Venter.
AfriForum also indicated in the letter that the civil rights organisation will once again approach the courts if Umalusi refuses to accredit the 2020 matric certificate as a result of a poor investigation to bring the guilty parties to book and to determine the extent of the leakage of the papers.