{"id":14158,"date":"2026-01-09T23:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14158\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T23:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T23:04:14","slug":"umalusi-to-withhold-results-of-40-pupils-linked-to-2025-exam-paper-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14158\/","title":{"rendered":"Umalusi to withhold results of 40 pupils linked to 2025 exam paper breach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Umalusi has confirmed the results of pupils implicated in the 2025 examination paper breach will be withheld as it approved the release of matric results across all assessment bodies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The decision was announced during a media briefing on approval of the 2025 examination results after an investigation into a leak involving mathematics, physical sciences and English home language exam papers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to Umalusi council chairperson, Prof Yunus Ballim, the executive committee endorsed the decision to block the affected results. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe executive committee of council endorses the recommendation to withhold the results of candidates who are implicated in the alleged irregularities, including acts of dishonesty,\u201d said Ballim. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The initial number of candidates found in the exam breach has increased to 40 from 26.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ballim said \u201cthe increase stemmed from continuous investigation by the investigation task team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said the national investigation task team found \u201cthe leaks were limited to the three subjects or seven papers mentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ballim said the incident last occurred in 2021. He said since then the national senior certificate examination (NSC) process has not had an issue. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThis goes to show the level of improvement in security and the examination system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cUmalusi wants to assure the public the breach was localised and therefore cannot dent the overall credibility of the 2025 NSC results,\u201d said Ballim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He warned further action could be taken if more cases are uncovered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWhile the number of implicated pupils stands at about 40, there will be consequences for anyone who is not included in the number should they be discovered later,\u201d Ballim said, adding Umalusi has the power \u201cto cancel a certificate after it has been issued on discovery of irregularities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Despite the breach, Umalusi approved the release of the 2025 matric results for all assessment bodies, including the department of basic education (DBE), the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) and the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ballim said the approval followed careful quality assurance processes and \u201cthere were no systemic irregularities reported that might have compromised the overall credibility and integrity\u201d of the examinations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Providing an overview of the 2025 examinations, Umalusi CEO Dr Mafu Rokometsi said more than one million candidates wrote the exams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAbout 1,026,000 candidates wrote the examinations across different qualifications and assessment bodies,\u201d said Rokometsi. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He said the NSC accounted for most candidates, with more than 927,000 candidates writing matric exams at about 9,400 examination centres across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Rokometsi said Umalusi\u2019s quality assurance work was aimed at protecting the integrity of the examination system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe goal of the quality assurance processes is to ensure the assessments and examinations are conducted, administered and managed in accordance with the prescripts of the regulations that govern them, thereby ensuring the highest credibility and integrity of the Umalusi-issued certificates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The results of all other candidates will be released as scheduled while investigations into the breach continue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">TimesLIVE <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Umalusi has confirmed the results of pupils implicated in the 2025 examination paper breach will be withheld as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[9482,1926,9479,131,9480,9481,9483],"class_list":{"0":"post-14158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-leaked-exam-papers","9":"tag-matric-results","10":"tag-nsc-results-credibility","11":"tag-south-africa","12":"tag-south-african-exam-security","13":"tag-south-african-matric-exams","14":"tag-umalusi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}