Students who cheated during the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations but have not yet been identified among the 40 implicated candidates will still face consequences if they are later uncovered. This warning was delivered by Umalusi CEO, Dr Mafu Rakometsi, on Friday during his briefing on the report into irregularities detected at the Department of Basic Education (DBE) offices, following a national investigation into leaked examination papers. Rakometsi confirmed that the investigation stemmed from an announcement made by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube on 11 December 2025 of a serious breach involving several high-stakes papers.
“There had been a breach in connection with the NSC Mathematics Papers 1 and 2, Physical Sciences Papers 1 and 2, and English Home Language Papers 1 to 3 examinations,” Rakometsi said. In response, a National Investigation Task Team (NITT) was established to independently probe the source and spread of the leak and report its findings to Umalusi. Rakometsi said the NITT, presented its report to the Executive Committee of the Umalusi Council on 6 January 2026.
He stressed that the task team comprised respected education leaders and scholars who had served in senior roles both locally and internationally. Umalusi sought to reassure the public that the integrity of the 2025 NSC examinations had not been compromised nationally. “Considering that the report singles out about 40 candidates out of a total population of approximately 600 000 who wrote the examination in the three subjects across the country, Umalusi wants to assure the public that the breach was localised and therefore cannot dent the overall credibility of the 2025 NSC results,” Rakometsi said.
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More than 204 000 candidates wrote Physical Sciences, over 254 000 wrote Mathematics, and 135 090 sat for English Home Language. Rakometsi said the final approval statement would outline how the results of the implicated candidates would be handled.
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