The 2025 matric results will be released on 12 January 2026. Picture: X/@zola_hashatsi The battle over whether the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results could be published in newspapers using pupils’ examination numbers is heading to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). The decision comes just 13 days before the 2025 cohorts get their results on the 12thof January 2026.
Earlier this month, the Information Regulator was dealt a blowwhen the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that publishing matric results on public platforms using only examination numbers, rather than names, protects matriculants’ privacy. Acting Judge Mark Morgan dismissed the regulator’s arguments as “fanciful” and likened its stance to “a poorly constructed thought experiment.” The regulator later said it would study the judgment dismissing its application to block the publication of matric results. It has now been decided to approach the SCA with an application for leave to appeal the North Gauteng High Court’s ruling in Pretoria.
“The parties were not given an opportunity to make any submissions on the meaning of the phrase ‘personally identifiable information’ in the context of the dispute before the court, as a result of which their right to a fair hearing was violated,” it stated in the application. The regulator argued that the High Court had wrongly focused on the manner of publication, as the POPI Act was not concerned with the trouble a person went to in identifying the data subject, according to News24. The regulator said it was in the interests of justice and in the public interest that the lawfulness of the publication of matric results be finally determined by a higher court. It filed an urgent application to prevent the publication of the NSC examination results in newspapers, citing concerns about a potential violation of students’ privacy under POPIA.
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