Motshekga ‘jumped the gun’ on matric rewrites, court hears
Grade 12 pupils are set to learn on Friday whether the two National Senior Certificate (NSC) question papers which were leaked will have to be rewritten.
Lobby group AfriForum argued in the High Court in Pretoria that the government relied on hearsay evidence to conclude that the two leaked exam papers should be re-written.
Judgment has been reserved until Friday after the lobby group and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) dragged Education Minister Angie Motshekga to court over her decision to rewrite Mathematics Paper 2 and Physical Sciences Paper 2.
“Umalusi, they’ve made up their minds too early. They should’ve waited until there’s proper investigations. Papers must be marked. Only after that, when they are approached for the certification, it is then when they have to make the decision,” argued lawyer Japie Strydom.
“They jumped the gun.”
Strydom said that less than a percentage point of the Class of 2020 saw the question papers before it was written.
He told the court that “it’s a position of the tail wagging the dog”, referring to Motshegka rubberstamping quality assurer uMalusi’s intention for the papers to be rewritten.
The applicants in the case believe the entire nation’s mental health will be put at risk if the papers are re-written.
“This is not evidence relating to what really happened. This is second-hand evidence on a hearsay basis. None of these people came forward and gave any evidence or affidavits of what really happened,” Strydom said.
