Mpumalanga's matric results came under scrutiny when five papers were leaked in October. Thirteen people, including an official from the correctional services department, a worker at Clicks, a teacher and 10 learners, were arrested after police found the syndicate photocopying maths, physics and accounting question papers at an Internet Café in Barberton.

Motshekga's decision to release this province's results came at the 11th hour, meaning that traumatised candidates had to agonise over their results.

Writing matric exams is not a picnic and experiencing delays in accessing your results is traumatic. And there is a long history of official cruelty to learners. In 2004 the results were withheld due toirregularities. In 2008 9 000 learners did not receive their results on time because the province failed to submit their results to the national department because information was missing.

In 1998, when I still harboured dreams of this country eventually getting a functional education system, I reacted with caution when Mpumalanga suddenly achieved a 72% matric pass rate. An investigation then found the results had been inflated by 20%.

The department's temerity in believing it could get away with cheating is something that has remained with me. And the education member of the executive committee at the time of the marks inflation was David Mabuza -- the current premier of the province.

He and his education cronies have been silent about the latest saga. They have largely left the handling of the scandal to Motshekga and Umalusi. Is Mabuza hoping that by saying nothing people will forget the incident? Where is the accountability?

With the Mpumalanga education department coming under the care of the national education department I hope the national chief director of exams, Nkosinathi Sishi, will emulate University of Free State vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen -- a maverick who has both the common sense and the balls of steel needed to go into a messy situation and clean it up without any fear.

And Motshekga needs to send an expert team to investigate all the structures and deficiencies in the provincial department, as Naledi Pandor did in the Eastern Cape early last year. If she does not resolve the whole mess, the system will remain a tragicomedy.