DBE suspends employees amid leaked NSC exam materials scandal

Twenty-six matric learners have admitted to having access to both the English Home Language Paper 2 question paper and the marking guide after being interviewed by a joint investigation team. Two Department of Basic Education (DBE) employees have been suspended.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube on Thursday, confirmed that leaked 2025 papers originated inside DBE and reached learners at seven Pretoria schools.

“The spread seems to be confined to identified learners in seven schools in a specific area in Pretoria,” she said.

Investigators later confirmed the compromised material “could only have originated from the National Department of Basic Education’s offices (DBE).

The breach extended to English Home Language, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, but appears limited. 

The minister, speaking at Good Hope Chambers in Parliament said the detection shows the system’s safeguards are functioning as intended. “Our systems worked exactly as they were designed to do: to detect, isolate, investigate and address any manipulation of the NSC exams.”

The irregularity was uncovered on December 2 when Gauteng markers identified “an unusual similarity between the answers provided by a candidate with the answer provided in the marking guideline for English Home Language Paper 2.” Gwarube said the discovery “raised an immediate red flag and triggered standard protocols.”

Two DBE employees have been suspended, and a National Investigative Task Team , made up of an independent chairperson; Umalusi; Universities South Africa; Teacher Unions; SAQA; DBE officials; and a private forensic investigator.

Gwarube stressed that no results have been finalised; no certification processes have begun.

This latest leak lands in a sector with a recent history of security breaches. The last time exam papers were confirmed to have circulated widely was in 2020, when two high-stakes subjects were leaked ahead of the scheduled writing sessions.

An attempted national rewrite sparked an urgent legal challenge in the Gauteng High Court, which overturned the department’s decision after applicants  including teachers’ unions and pupils argued the rewrite was unjustified and driven by pressure from external quality monitors.

Two years later, allegations resurfaced in Mpumalanga, where a whistleblower claimed hundreds of learners were part of an organised cheating scheme that used WhatsApp groups to share answers during exams.

The results came under scrutiny in 2024 when marks were illicitly accessed and advertised for sale online before their official release in January 2025.

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