Hawks, State Security probe possible breach in the 2024 National Senior Certificate results

MINISTER of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube said the State Security Agency and the country’s elite investigations unit, the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI) also known as the Hawks have been roped in to probe a possible breach in the 2024 National Senior Certificate results.

Gwarube was answering questions from the media before her breakfast with the 2024 National Senior Certificate Top Achievers, in Randburg on Monday.

Her response comes after it emerged on social media that a website was selling verified matric results to pupils for as little as R100.

Gwarube said while there is a limit to what can be said due to the nature of the investigation, she could confirm that the potential breach may have happened at the tail end of the results that had already been verified.

“We have become aware of a platform selling authentic matric results to learners and we have enlisted the services of the Hawks and the State Security to investigate the matter,” she said.

She added that they suspected that the breach may have emanated either from the department internally, through the sharing of information with stakeholders or it may have been a cyber attack.

Gwarube said they will also be looking at whether their systems are tight enough.

“If the breach comes from DBE, we are under the leadership of the DG (Director-General), going to launch an investigation, because it is absolutely critical that this process be as airtight as possible. If it comes from the DBE side we will be launching an investigation and consequence management will follow.

“However, if this is, as we may suspect, the result of a cybercrime then this is why the State Security and the Hawks have become involved. The reason we have not been able to speak about the matter for the last 48 hours is because the Hawks have indicated that the investigation is at an advanced stage. And therefore it became too sensitive for us to divulge,” Gwarube said.

She added that if the breach comes from stakeholders, “we will tighten the systems there.”

The breach, she said, will not affect the integrity of the results.

“We will make sure that we set an example to people who prey on learners. We've got the law on our side and we need to look at the system,” she said.

Meanwhile, Umalusi, the quality assurer, held a media briefing on Monday morning to make a pronouncement on the 2024 end of year national examination results in respect of the four Umalusi-quality assured qualifications.

Umalusi chief executive Dr Mafu Rakometsi said the Executive Committee (exco) of Umalusi’s had approved the release of candidates’ results.

He said this was confirmation that the assessment leading to certification in schools, adult education centres and technical and vocational education and training colleges was of the required standard across all qualifications for all examinations conducted in the period under review.

He however noted examination malpractices, where KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga ranked top on copying during the exams.

“While all four assessment bodies reported some detected cases of malpractice or cheating during the writing of the examinations, I find it necessary to flag the following cases, almost 365 N2-N3 candidates in the private college sector are reported to have been involved in acts of copying.

“In the case of the NSC, while there has been a reduction in the number of reported cases of group copying in the DBE, the number decreased from 945 in 2023 to 407 in 2024, Umalusi remains seriously concerned that KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are once again at the top of the list with 195 and 74 implicated candidates respectively,” Rakometsi said.

He emphasised that cheating does not pay.

“This finds support in the judgment of the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court which was delivered on 12 August 2024 in respect of 448 learners from a number of schools in the Mpumalanga Province who cheated during their NSC examinations during October/December 2022. In the judgment, the Acting Judge said in Paragraph 37 ‘I have no doubt that the learners have cheated and had deserved to be punished as they were…what the learners must appreciate is that cheating does not pay’.”

In respect of identified irregularities, Rakometsi said the DBE is required to block the results of all candidates implicated in irregularities including the candidates who are implicated in the alleged acts of dishonesty pending the outcome of the DBE investigations and verification by Umalusi.

He said a total of 1,060,852 candidates participated in the 2024 end of year examinations. Of that number, the NSC accounts for 832,993 candidates or 78.5% distributed across the DBE, IEB and SACAI.

“The remaining 227,859 or 21.5% candidates are distributed across three qualifications: 138,000 wrote the NC(V) L2-L4 examinations, 49,421 wrote the N2-N3 examinations, and 40,438 wrote the GETC: ABET examinations.

“The examinations were administered at a combined total of 9 566 examination centres distributed across the nine provinces of the country. As the law requires, all the examinations were subjected to the quality assurance processes of Umalusi,” Rakometsi said.

On the National Senior Certificate administered by the DBE, he said out of the 880,209 candidates who were registered to write the NSC examination under the DBE, 810,900 managed to write.

“That implies that 69,309 or 7.9% of the registered students were absent from the examinations. The 810,900 candidates who sat for the examinations include 704,401 full-time candidates and 106,499 part-time candidates.”

The examination was written at 6,933 examination centres across the nine provinces and the DBE presented results of 68 subjects for standardisation, he said.