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Articles: Exam paper leak suspect denies playing a key role

Posted by admin on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 02:16 AM

A FORMER Augustineum Secondary School Principal, who is accused of having been the source of exam paper leaks that almost scuppered Namibia's Grade 12 examinations at the end of 2002, denied charges against him when he testified in court this week.
Isaac le Roux (44) told the Windhoek Magistrate's Court he was falsely being made the scapegoat for the leaks. Le Roux testified in his own defence before Magistrate Elina Nandago on Monday and Tuesday. His trial on charges of unlawful use of property and attempting to defeat or obstruct the course of justice was supposed to continue yesterday. Instead, Le Roux's defence lawyer, Johan van Vuuren, asked for a postponement to enable him to arrange for another former Augustineum teacher who he wants to call as a witness in Le Roux's defence to travel from Angola. Le Roux's trial is now set to continue from July 7 to 9. Le Roux was the Acting Principal at Augustineum in late October 2002, when it was discovered that Grade 12 Cambridge exam papers had been leaked to students at a number of Windhoek schools. Early in November 2002 Le Roux and three students were arrested over the incident, which might have led to the scrapping of the country's Grade 12 exams that year if the leaks had been found to have been more widespread. In September last year one of those students, Evaristo Paulo Taukondjele, pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving stolen goods - Biology, Physical Science and Mathematics exam papers - and went on to be sentenced to a wholly suspended fine of N$2 000 or two years imprisonment. Taukondjele also went on to testify as the State's first witness in the trial of Le Roux, telling Magistrate Nandago that Le Roux had approached him with an offer that "for a certain amount of money" there was a possibility of getting hold of Cambridge exam papers. Taukondjele claimed that he eventually paid Le Roux N$4 000, and that he in return received a sealed brown envelope with sections of the 2002 Grade 12 Biology, Mathematics and Physical Science exam papers from Le Roux. Le Roux flatly denied Taukondjele's claims this week. "I do not know why he testified the way he died," he remarked at one stage of his testimony on Tuesday. Le Roux told the court that he was one of three teachers at Augustineum to have a key for the strongroom where sealed exam papers were kept. It was in that strongroom that officials from the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture claimed to have found plastic bags - of the type in which exam papers had been sealed before they were needed for examinations - that showed signs that they had been tampered with by having been carefully cut open and again resealed. According to Le Roux the Ministry's officials had to find a scapegoat to blame for the leaking of exam papers. He remains free on bail until the trial resumes.

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