DBE slams IR for 'self-created urgency' in application to halt publishing of matric results
Department legal representative, advocate Marius Oosthuizen, argued that the regulator only conducted an assessment in 2023 and made a draft assessment available to the DBE in November of that same year.
Grade 12 pupils writing their final exams. Picture: @Siviwe_G/X
JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has slammed the Information Regulator for what it has termed self-created urgency in an application to interdict the publication of the National Senior Certificate exam results.
Department legal representative, advocate Marius Oosthuizen, argued that the regulator only conducted an assessment in 2023 and made a draft assessment available to the DBE in November of that same year.
However, it only finalised its assessment and issued the department with an enforcement notice in November 2024 after the department made its submissions in January last year.
The two parties battled it out before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Oosthuizen said this matter was not suitable for the urgent court roll.
"This court order was followed without objection for at least three years thereafter and the Information Regulator did nothing. It took them a year to make an assessment of the legal situation and in November 2023, they provide us with a draft report. Now, from 31 January 2024 until the letter of 6 November 2024, nearly 10 months later, they don't tell us what happened, what they did."