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A photo of a Hawks branded vehicle. Photo: Hawks

One suspect arrested for leaked matric maths paper

Themba Shikwambana, a man working for a company contracted to print Matric exam papers has been arrested for leaking the Maths paper.

hawks

A photo of a Hawks branded vehicle. Photo: Hawks

Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga has confirmed that one person has been arrested in connection with the leaking of the mathematics exam paper.

Minister Motshekga revealed this information at an event at the Slovoville Primary School on Tuesday 1 December 2020.

The department has seen at least three exam papers leaked a few hours before being written, Physics Paper 2, Mathematics paper 2 and Business Economics.

The department sought assistance from the hawks to identify the origins of the leakages which have affected various provinces.

According to the hawks, Themba Daniel Shikwambana (31) was arrested last week for the theft of the Mathematics paper.

It is alleged that Shikwambana works for a Johannesburg based company that is contracted by the department of basic education to print the 2020 matric exam papers.

The hawks said investigations into the other two papers are still underway.

The Council of Education Ministers (CEM) received the preliminary report on the investigation into the leaked exam papers on Tuesday morning.

“The report is incomplete and it is difficult to get to the bottom of the problem. It was proven that two papers did prove positive, the Physics paper 2 and the Mathematics paper. The Physics paper was contained very early,” said Motshekga.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motsekga

The department was able to identify the leaked Business Economics paper and use a backup paper that was set for that subject.

She added that it’s difficult to establish the extent of the leaks.

“Now the question is what the extent is? Some of the learners who were interviewed only saw the paper on their phones in the morning others saw it in the taxi. It’s not the kids who stole the question papers but it’s the question papers that landed on their phones,” said Motshekga.

Motshekga is expected to brief the media sometime this week after the report has been processed internally.