Community grieves Deveney Nel in tragic case that highlights growing violence among SA's youth

Deveney Nel’s laugh was irresistible — a sound too big for her slender 16-year-old frame, bubbling into ripples of giggles wherever she went. 

That’s what friends remember most — and the Overberg High School learner’s warmth, diligence, and love for sport, especially netball.

On 7 August 2024, Deveney was stabbed multiple times in the neck during a school sporting event at her school in Caledon, Western Cape. Her body was later found in a storage room on the premises while pupils, parents and teachers frantically searched for the missing teenager.

The alleged perpetrator was a 17-year-old fellow learner who knew her well.

On Friday, 17 October 2025 — after numerous delays — the now-18-year-old is finally set to stand trial for her murder. It is a case that has left an indelible scar on the Overberg community. Several teachers have since resigned, and principal Johan Jacobs continues to lead healing initiatives for staff and pupils. 

On National Women’s Day, a special assembly was held in Deveney’s honour. Her mother and grandmother attended but remain too traumatised to speak publicly about their loss.

“This is a small town. You don’t expect such horror, especially in what’s supposed to be the safest of spaces — a school,” says Caledon resident and community activist Tanya Bippert. “For Deveney’s mom, the pain is still unbearable. For her friends, who are at such a vulnerable age, it’s been agonising.”

A Larger Crisis

Deveney Nel’s murder is not an isolated tragedy. Since 2021, South Africa has witnessed a dramatic rise in violent crimes committed by children — and a worrying decline in the age of offenders.

A 2022/2023 report on the Implementation of the Child Justice Act, released by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, found that the leading charge against children awaiting trial was assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (20%), followed closely by rape (19%). Given the country’s low rate of reported sexual offences, the true scope of the problem is probably far greater.

Provinces with the highest proportion of rape charges involving child offenders were North West (43%), Free State (34%) and Mpumalanga (33%), while KwaZulu-Natal recorded the highest number of rape charges overall. Officials cited a lack of resources, inaccessible informal settlements, and a high rate of case withdrawals as major obstacles.

In the Western Cape alone, the Department of Social Development reported that during the 2024/25 financial year, probation officers assessed 51 children arrested for the murder of other children.

Just nine days ago, four-year-old Qadir Boer from Hanover Park became the latest casualty of this grim pattern. He was caught in the crossfire of gang wars. Qadir’s alleged killers are 17-year-olds — already hardened by years of indoctrination into the “gangsta” family that began before they turned 12.

“Perhaps the most disturbing trend is the normalisation of sexual violence perpetrated by children against other children,” says Lucinda Evans, founder of the South African chapter of One Billion Rising, a global anti-GBV movement. Evans describes reports of “perverse sexual games” in some Cape Town schools where groups of older teenage boys ambush younger male learners and simulate sexual acts.

“We’ve had at least two such reports from primary schools,” she says. “Parents tried to open cases, but the police refused — citing the ages of the alleged perpetrators — despite the clear violation of victims’ rights.”

Evans highlights the gap between the Child Justice Act’s intervention guidelines and their enforcement at schools and police stations. 

“Victims are forced to share the same space as their abusers, living in fear the violence will continue. This is a sinister pattern — and if ignored, it can have deadly consequences.”

The fight for free speech — and justice

Evans has also criticised systemic failures in the Deveney Nel case. The build-up to Friday’s trial has been marked by controversy: in March, the accused’s mother filed a protection order against One Billion Rising, Evans personally, activists Tanya Bippert and Amanda Fourie, as well as freelance journalist Julian Jansen. The order, citing risk to the accused and his family, would effectively gag them from posting about the case.

After several postponements, the matter will be heard at the Grabouw Magistrate’s Court on 6 November — just weeks before South Africa’s annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign.

Daily Maverick approached the accused’s mother for comment. She declined, saying she needed to process the trauma and prioritise her son’s upcoming trial.

“We sympathise with her pain and respect her desire to protect her child,” says Bippert. “But we’ve never identified or harassed the accused. This isn’t about us — it’s about awareness, justice, and our constitutional right to freedom of speech.”

Speaking on the Protection Order against Jansen, Rapport Deputy Editor Albert Weideman said: “I can confirm that the mother of the accused in the Deveney Nel murder case has applied for a protection order against one of Rapport’s freelance journalists, Julian Jansen, in his personal capacity.

“This application is entirely without merit. Julian Jansen is a seasoned and widely respected journalist, who was merely doing his job in reporting on a matter of patent public interest. At no stage did his polite inquiries of the accused’s family come close to anything approaching ‘harassment’. We stand fully behind Mr Jansen in opposing this application and have arranged legal counsel for him when the matter is heard on 6 November. 

“The Protection from Harassment Act was never intended to silence journalists and to curtail freedom of the press. As such, this application constitutes a clear abuse of process.”

Justice for whom?

The accused teenager is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. But his case has reignited a national debate about whether South Africa’s child-offender laws adequately balance protection and accountability.

“We have excellent laws designed to protect child victims and assess each young offender’s circumstances,” said Luke Lamprecht, Head of Advocacy for Women and Men Against Child Abuse. “The focus is on intervention, therapy, diversion, rehabilitation and ultimately reintegration into society. But the system is failing in implementation — there aren’t enough resources or coordination, and too many children, both victims and perpetrators, are slipping through the cracks.”

Children, crime and the law

Under South African law, the Child Justice Act (2008) governs how offenders under 18 are prosecuted:

• Under 12: presumed to lack criminal capacity and cannot be prosecuted.
• Ages 12-14: presumed to lack capacity unless the state proves otherwise; may be arrested.
• Ages 14-17: have criminal capacity and may be prosecuted under the Child Justice Act, which prioritises rehabilitation over punishment.
• Sentences must be proportional; imprisonment is a last resort and limited to the minimum necessary period.
• For serious offences like murder or rape, youth facilities may be used, but sentences are far shorter than adult terms.

Two Crimes, Three Children, No Justice

Author and journalist Jansen explores the deeper tragedy in his book The Murder of Deveney Nel: Two Crimes, Three Children, No Justice.

The “third child” in his title is a now 16-year-old girl raped at age 11 near Albertinia in 2020. Brutally beaten and left for dead with a barbed-wire noose around her neck, she survived. Her alleged attacker — then 13 — is now the same teen accused of killing Deveney. The State cannot introduce the previous case as evidence because it never reached the Children’s Court, and no conviction was secured.

According to the Western Cape Department of Social Development, prosecution was halted “following an assessment. No subsequent referral from the court was received for further services.”

When a teenager is accused of a serious crime, the process is designed to uphold the law and protect the young offender’s rights. After arrest, the child appears before a magistrate for a preliminary inquiry. A probation officer or social worker must assess the child’s circumstances, family background, and emotional state to guide the outcome toward both justice and rehabilitation. 

If the child accepts responsibility, the case may be diverted to counselling, community service or restorative programmes. If not — or if the offence is too serious — it proceeds to the Child Justice Court for a full trial. In the 11-year-old rape survivor’s case, however, the matter was simply erased. 

The alleged perpetrator was deemed too young to have criminal capacity — and never referred for intervention.

“That’s the crux of it,” says Lamprecht. “If he’d been referred to the Children’s Court at 13, he might have received help. Without that, the system failed the rape survivor, the alleged perpetrator, and Deveney.”

Similar questions surround the recent murder of 16-year-old Chanelle Plaatjies in Paarl. One of the three accused, 19-year-old Keaton Johnson, reportedly had a history of juvenile criminality. Was intervention ever provided — and could her death have been prevented?

What justice looks like

Since his arrest for Deveney’s murder, the accused has been referred to Valkenberg psychiatric hospital for assessment. He also received therapeutic and educational programmes, before being transferred to a juvenile correctional facility. His trial will be held in camera, as he was a minor at the time of the alleged murder.

If convicted, he could face a reduced sentence under the Child Justice Act and be released in his early twenties. However, because murder is a Schedule 3 offence — the most serious category — the State may seek to have him tried as an adult if premeditation and aggravating circumstances are proven beyond reasonable doubt.

A system tilted toward offenders?

The Child Justice Act allows for victim-impact statements detailing the physical, psychological and social trauma caused by the crime — a mechanism intended to promote restorative justice. While parents of these offenders cannot be held criminally liable for their child’s actions, the act holds them accountable for the child’s upbringing and the consequences of their offenses. Parents must also participate in diversion and rehabilitation programmes, including providing support and ensuring compliance with any orders issued.

Yet many child rights advocates worry that, in practice, South Africa’s legal framework offers greater protection to perpetrators than to victims.

“Children who commit heinous crimes like rape and murder must understand the consequences and be held accountable for the lives of the victims and their families they have devastated forever,” says Miranda Jordan-Friedman, Director of Women and Men Against Child Abuse. “Too often they evade real accountability — and go on to commit more horrifying crimes as adults.”

The way forward

As Deveney’s accused killer prepares to face trial, child-rights activists are calling for urgent reform of the Child Justice Act: effective implementation, adequate resources, inter-departmental coordination, and greater accountability for the parents of teenage offenders charged with violent crimes.

“We need an integrated approach — government, lawyers, civil society, faith-based organisations — working together to fill the cracks that are swallowing our children,” says Bippert.

The consensus is clear: Deveney Nel’s murder, and the countless others like it, could have been prevented. Her laughter is now silent. But her legacy may yet endure — as a reminder that justice for one child must mean protection for all. DM