NPA shoots down calls to try Deveney Nel's alleged murderer as an adult

CAPE TOWN - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has shot down calls by community activists in the Overberg region to have a teenager accused of murder to be tried as an adult.

The 17-year-old boy is linked to the murder of 16-year-old girl Devaney Nel, who was killed in Caledon a month ago.

The grade 10 pupil's stabbed body was found locked inside a storeroom at the Overberg High School during a sports day event.

There are growing calls from civil society organisations for the alleged murderer to be tried as an adult.

However, the NPA said the law does not allow people who allegedly committed crimes as minors to be tried as adults.

"It's not possible. The law is very clear, the Child Justice Act is very clear on that. We cannot, and we need to abide by the law."

Meanwhile, civil society organisation Cape Forum's Hein Wyngaard said the act needed to be looked at to accommodate cases like these.

"I don't know why it's important to protect an offender who is alleged to have committed a brutal murder to a young innocent girl. But I think there should be space in the legal framework to say, why not make this young man stand in court as an adult. Because the act is not the act of an innocent child, this brutal murder is an act of an adult."