Mpumalanga's matric results will not be released this Thursday with the rest of the country's, quality assurance body Umalusi said.

"Umalusi regrets the inconvenience and anxiety this might generate on the part of the learners and families, but Umalusi is being guided by its statutory mandates of ensuring that the results approved for release are credible," chairperson of Umalusi's council Professor John Volmink told a press briefing in Pretoria on Monday.

The decision was made after five matric papers - mathematics papers one and two, physical science papers one and two and accounting - were leaked in the province. He said that he expected the approval of the results of the majority of exam centres in the province within a few days. While not mentioning a specific date, he said the results would be made available "as soon as possible".

"We owe this not only to the learners of Mpumalanga but to the country as a whole."

About 60 000 candidates wrote matric exams in Mpumalanga.

Volmink said that conduct of examinations in the province left much to be desired.

He said Umalusi had received detailed reports from the Basic Education Department and the National Examination Irregularities Committee.

"These reports together with other evidence are being studied to ensure that examination related processes in Mpumalanga are credible."

He said that when it was discovered that papers had been leaked in the province in October, the Basic Education Department replaced the papers countrywide.

Matric results in the North West Province, Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal would be released on Thursday.

According to research by trade union Solidarity, matriculants who did not want to study further would struggle to find work.

"The report shows that about 8,9% of people with tertiary qualifications who look for work cannot find work, while nearly 25,7% of people with matric as [their] highest qualification are unemployed," spokesperson Dirk Herman said in a statement on Monday.

"In other words, there is hope for matrics who want to study further in particular. Matrics should not regard the end of matric as the end of their learning path, but rather as the beginning. If a matriculant makes the further effort of qualifying in a scarce skill, he or she is almost certain of a job..."