SABC News reports that they were issued letters revoking their appointments as markers after some learners were allegedly found in possession of crib notes during an examination in the Bushbuckridge area.

A few days before the start of the grade 12 examination in October, the Mpumalanga Department of Education warned that there is a need to be extra vigilant during this year’s grade 12 exams.

This was because, for the first time in the province, more than 71 500 candidates registered to write the matric examinations. The department also congratulated itself for administering incident-free examinations for the past 12 years. However, they have now been dealt a heavy blow.

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Some pupils were found in possession of cheat notes during the examination in several schools in the Bushbuckridge area.

Chairperson of the Mdluli Secondary School Governing Body, Petros Sibuyi, says they are not happy with the manner in which the matter is being handled by the department.

"We did a follow-up and found that some of the things were found on their bodies, and we are not happy about that. The kids were taken to the principal for further assessment.

"When they were there, the person in charge of checking the kids was not present."

Cheating scandal

This has led the department to revoke the appointments of the teachers who were selected to participate in the marking process.

Apparently, some of them are accused of being involved in the cheating scandal. But the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) believes that its members are innocent.

Sadtu’s secretary in Mpumalanga, Walter Hlaise, elaborates, "And we just saw the reports in the media over the weekend that alleged that there is a wider web of teachers and learners who are in this network of cheating during examinations. We made representations on behalf of our members that they should continue to mark because, as far as we know for now, none of them are implicated in this matter. 

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"However, the department informed us that they have launched an investigation into this matter, and as a result, all teachers in the affected areas are prohibited from going to mark."

Hlaise says they could take legal action against the department at a later stage.

"These are serious allegations, and we think that if anybody is involved, there should be consequences. It is our belief that none of our members are involved. It would be really unfair for them to be accused of such things when they have not done anything. "We'd see what steps we could take at the time."

Attempts to get a comment from the Department of Basic Education were unsuccessful.

OFM News