The provincial department of education in Mpumalanga will not take any disciplinary action against the whistleblower who reported irregularities in the province’s matric exams to the police.
The Sunday Times reported this week that Thomas Msiza, spokesperson for the Mpumalanga minister of education, had confirmed that the department planned to take actions against the whistleblower.
”There will not be any disciplinary action taken against any whistleblower,” Msiza told the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday. ”My comments were placed out of context by the Sunday Times.”
The Democratic Alliance reacted on Monday with disbelief to the assumption that disciplinary action would be taken.
”How can we take action against a whistleblower? Government encourages people to report any irregularities in this society and we are government as well. We cannot act in contradiction to this policy,” Msiza said.
”We are actually quite happy that this marker reported the matter to the police. An investigation [has been] launched and now we can find out whether these allegations are true and to what extend fraud has been committed.
”I want to stress that nothing is confirmed. Allegations of fraud are under investigation. We cannot draw any conclusions until a concrete report is presented by the police.”
Allegations
Teachers allegedly — sometimes with the knowledge of principals — gave learners answers to exam questions.
Answer sheets were supposedly handed out to the students, or teachers would write the answers on the black board.
Mpumalanga police launched an investigation into exam irregularities on December 24.
”The investigation started after people came to the police to file charges against irregularities they had witnessed. They did this after they complained at the department but they felt the department did not act,” Superintendent Izak van Zyl of the Mpumalanga police told the M&G Online
”We confiscated all the matric answer sheets and so far we have found about 600 papers with irregularities. Around 38 schools are involved.
”Now that this story is coming out we receive more and more reports from witnesses and we encourage people to come forward. They can contact the police on Tel: (013) 249 1053. The number of schools involved might rise.
”A team is investigating the case. Based on the evidence, the prosecutor has to decide whether legal action will be taken,” Van Zyl said. ”I cannot make comments on possible arrests.”
Report
”This particular whistleblower was marking the higher-grade physical science paper and found irregularities. These were reported to the chief marker, who wrote an irregularities report,” Msiza said.
”According to the prescribed procedure, this report was passed on to the irregularities commission, who was examining the case. When the police confiscated all the answer sheets, this investigation had to stop.
”I have no idea why the marker filed a report with the police; the department was also investigating the matter.
”I hope for the students that the police investigation will be finished soon so the answer sheets can be marked and the results can be made public. Tertiary institutions are waiting for these results and a long investigation would jeopardise future opportunities for pupils.”
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