/ 18 November 2010

DA charges Mpumalanga minister over matric results

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday laid charges with the Office of the Speaker against Mpumalanga Education Minister Reginah Mhaule over outstanding matric results.

“The provincial minister of education, has on numerous occasions blatantly lied about the existence of outstanding grade 12 senior certificates,” DA leader Anthony Benadie said in a statement.

The party said it had information that the department had hundreds of certificates outstanding and that the national or provincial departments of education were not able to issue the certificates.

However the department refuted this, saying that Mahlau had not misled the public, nor the provincial legislature.

“In 2008 when the provincial minister said there were no outstanding certificates, it is because the department had not received any queries about learners not getting their certificates,” departmental spokesperson Jasper Zwane said.

He added that his department received three complaints from matriculants who did not receive their certificates in that year.

“The fact is 41 603 learners wrote the 2008 grade 12 examinations and were resulted accordingly.”

Remarking resulted in delay
He said pupils did not get their certificates due to their application for the remarking of their exam papers.

In 2009, he said, 171 of over 55 000 pupils did not receive their certificates.

He said this delay was also caused by pupils who applied for the re-marking of the exam papers.

“The department is currently engaging the National Department of Basic Education to fast track the cases received and we are making an effort to get all the outstanding results by the end of November,” said Zwane.

He said pupils who had not received their certificates could enquire at their previous schools or call the department’s toll-free hotline on 0800-203-116 during office hours. — Sapa