The department is currently busy with the issue.
The Mpumalanga department of education is currently interviewing 14 matric pupils who were caught with question papers while sitting for their exam late last year.
This is according to the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) who attended the meeting and represented the pupils.
The government could withhold the learners’ 2020 senior matric certificate results if they are found to be in the wrong.
Cosas said they are opposed to the allegations levelled against the learners and will defend them till the end.
The 14 pupils belong to the Nkululeko district in Matsulu.
Cosas provincial chairman Siphesihle Gumbi said the learners were hauled before the Provincial Education Irregularities Committee or PEIC last week and officials believed they had information that could assist the department in its investigation to uncover who exactly gave the pupils the question papers before they wrote their exam.
The department was not immediately available for comment.
Gumbi said their provincial secretary Brilliant Mncina and other Cosas leaders attended the irregularities committee’s meeting in Mbombela and spoke with panel members before the interview on the pupils could begin.
“We concluded with the committee that the investigation was unnecessary, time consuming and unfair as they don’t have evidence that it is those 14 selected learners who allegedly leaked those question papers,” Gumbi said.
He added they want the department to not continue with the enquiry anymore.
“No learner’s matric results should be withheld and no learner should be suspended because of allegedly being linked to the question papers issue,” he said.
(edited by ZK)
Send tip-offs to editor@013.co.za
