A cabinet Minister bears the ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or department. This means that if any harm is caused due to negligence and/or failure by any official of the department or ministry, the Minister responsible is accountable.

In South Africa we accept Mediocre leadership and as citizens we are to blame. When we suffer the consequences of Load shedding and excessive wastage of Taxpayer funds, we do not join the chorus to call for the Ministers to be axed.
The latest scandal to hit South Africans is the leaking of Matric Maths and Physics papers, unheard of before. The department has a responsibility to ensure that all security measures are in place to prevent these leaks.

Matriculants of 2020 are especially traumatized through the loss of teaching and learning time owing to the Covid Pandemic and are now burdened with rewriting papers because of a security breach in the departments system. The examination is extended by another week because of a departmental blunder.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motsheke, has done a fine job in deflecting the focus away from her by reporting on finding the culprits. But the buck stops with her. If she is not held responsible we cannot guarantee that Matric marking will be done without glitches too. The only way to restore some measure of confidence in the Matric examination is to replace this Minister immediately.