As matric exams draw to a close, allegations of a leaked paper have surfaced in KwaZulu-Natal.

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson Imran Keeka said that 30 pupils at a Pietermaritzburg school had received an incorrect paper during Wednesday's National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examination.

The pupils at Karina Secondary School received papers for Religious Studies while sitting for an English paper.

But the KwaZulu-Natal Education Department said that no papers were leaked, saying the "integrity of the 2023 NSC exams is still intact".

"Despite allegations of irregularities in Karina Secondary School, the department can confidently confirm that there was no leak of any of the examination papers," said department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi.

He said the school had received the English papers to be written during the morning session, but also "mistakenly received a pack of 17 question papers for Religious Studies".

"The chief invigilator was able to identify this while they were still undergoing the due diligence process for the examination. Both the chief invigilator and the monitor at the school safely removed the question paper to the district office. Karina Secondary School does not offer Religious Studies," she said:

However, Keeka claimed that not all the Religious Studies papers were initially recovered, with the last one only being recovered sometime later, which meant the contents may have been leaked.

Keeka added that he would write to Umalusi to request an investigation into the matter.

KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Mbali Frazer said: "So far, we've had a very smooth National Senior Certificate examination period, and we are confident of continuous utmost decorum as our 2023 final examination session draws to an end."

Umalusi had not responded at the time of publication, but previously told News24 that the Department of Basic Education would supply a consolidated report on all irregularities across the country for further investigation and consideration.

The education department had also not responded at the time of publication.