Pretoria - All 701 outstanding 2008 matric results will be finalised by Sunday.
Education Director-General Duncan Hindle said on Tuesday all outstanding results will be released by 15 February 2009 with the completion of the individual hearings into irregularities.
The task team, which investigated the delays in releasing matric results, handed over a report to Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, and Heads of Education Departments Committee for action to be taken against responsible officials.
Mr Hindle said the task team found that the delay in providing some results included a combination of shortcomings in the integrated examination computer system.
"This included problems with bandwidth, late registrations, late start in capturing data, an absence of standardised protocols for capturing results and a failure to put adequate monitoring in place for the first national exam," Mr Hindle said.
The minister further requested the Heads of Department to pay particular attention to what the task team established about the examination results process in Mpumalanga, where results took the longest to be captured.
During the investigation, the task team found that in one case a delay was caused by the theft of the data cable in the second week of November.
However, the team also noted that the delay was aggravated by the fact that Mpumalanga authorities failed to investigate or report the theft to the police.
The inadequate number of data capturers was also found to be a reason for the delay in releasing the results.
"In Mpumalanga there were initially only 16 capturers for 58 459 candidates, the examination authorities increased the number of capturers to 27 as the province ran further and further behind, until 60 were employed to catch up in the end," Mr Hindle said.
However, in the Eastern Cape, there were 22 data capturers for 63 285 candidates and all their results were captured in time.
During the release of matric results on 30 December 2008, 4 1603 learners from Mpumalanga received results, while 9000 of 56 000 learners nationally, who did not receive their results were from the province.
The provincial department said at the time the Integrated Examinations Computerised System (IECS) used nationally to capture learner marks and results, proved to be extremely challenging.
The IECS was developed by the national Education Department and was used for the first time during the 2008 Grade 12 examinations.
