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The case of which AfriForum is a part on the public publication of matric results in newspapers and on other public platforms will be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Monday and Tuesday (27 and 28 October 2025) from 10:00. 

According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, the dispute over the public publication of matric results began in 2022 when the Department of Basic Education (DBE) tried to prohibit it. At the time, the judge agreed with AfriForum and the other parties involved that the publication of the results was in the public interest and that the use of examination numbers instead of the names of the matriculants provided sufficient protection for their privacy.

At the end of last year, the Information Regulator (IR) tried to prevent the DBE from publishing the 2024 matric results. The IR’s application to obtain an interdict against it, however, failed on 8 January 2025 when Judge Ronèl Tolmay ruled in the Pretoria High Court in favour of the publication of the results. An order was then issued that the results indeed had to be published. This order is still valid, and the DBE therefore argues that it has no other choice but to oppose the IR’s directive to withhold publication.

However, the case in January only dealt with the interdict and not the merit of the case. In the court case starting on Monday, where three applications in this regard have been joined, the validity – or not – of the IR’s directive that the results may not be published will now be argued. AfriForum is one of the parties in favour of the public disclosure of the results.

Issued by AfriForum head of cultural affairs Alana Bailey