In 2011
Police are busy questioning staff and learners of New Era College in Malamulele, Limpopo, following the leak of the matric maths examination paper on October 31.
The owner of the school, Tinyiko Khosa, appeared briefly in the Giyani magistrate’s court yesterday for allegedly distributing a leaked paper to some learners.
Khosa was remanded in custody until November 23 when he was expected to make a formal bail application.
A pupil at Giyani High first blew the whistle after receiving pictures of the question paper as a WhatsApp message a day before it was to be written.
According to a parent of a learner at the school, the sender of the message asked the pupil to provide answers to some of the questions in the paper.
The learner innocently sent it to other learners from one of the classes who belonged to a WhatsApp study group.
The parent told the Mail & Guardian at the time that the group did not know that the picture of the question paper was the real question paper that they would be sitting for the following day.
An impeccable source told the M&G today that the person who sent the WhatsApp message to the Giyani High pupil was a former pupil of the school who was now studying at the University of Johannesburg.
“He [the University of Johannesburg student] got the pictures from a pupil from a school in Braamfontein in Johannesburg. This pupil, in turn, had received the paper from someone at New Era College.”
The source said that a four-member task team appointed by the department of basic education spent several hours today questioning about 20 pupils from Giyani High about the leaked paper.
“Two members of the team questioned the pupils individually. They are trying to establish how widespread the leak had been.”
He said the team left the school after 11.30am to question pupils from two other schools.