Officials at exam centres across Gauteng had a tough time this year trying to stop learners from cheating.

There were 51 cases of matric learners trying to get into exam centres with notes hidden on various parts of their bodies, notes written on pieces of paper, or scribbled on their arms.

At least five learners were caught smuggling cellphones into exam centres.

By law, a learner found guilty of transgressing the rules can be barred from writing for two to three exams in the future.

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane told a media briefing on Sunday that 45 learners tried to cheat during exams by taking in scripts.

In one extreme case, a learner had organised an imposter to write the exam paper for them.

''All of this means our invigilators were vigilant and they were able to catch these 45 learners.

''But overall this is a drop in the ocean compared to the number of candidates that wrote the national senior certificate, which was 188,000. There were just 51 and we were able to deal with them,'' said Chiloane.

Recently, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, said matric exams went off without a glitch.

''I can confirm that there have been no major compromises to the examinations. No leakage of question papers, contrary to some fake news reports that circulated earlier alleging that there was a leak,'' said Motshekga during a media briefing.

Since 30 October, some 717,377 full time candidates and 181,143 part-time candidates have been writing at 6,898 exam centres.

The marking of matric exam papers is already underway and the national matric results are expected to be released on 18 January. Learners can get the results at their schools on 19 January.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, has announced that he has secured over R4 billion to fund students from the so-called ''missing middle'' -- households that do not qualify for NSFAS free education scheme, yet are still not able to afford university fees.