One Billion Rising members Lucinda Evans and Tanya Bibbert will keep on challenging their protection order as they demand Child Justice Act reforms following the Caledon schoolgirl Deveney Nel affair.
These two prominent activists refused to be silenced on Friday as their court appearance was postponed yet again, extending a legal battle that has now stretched to over a year since the mother of Deveney’s convicted male teenage murderer applied for a protection order against them.
“We will not remain silent and we will fight for those who cannot fight for themselves,” Evans declared. She argued this protection order represented a direct attack on Bibbert’s and her constitutional rights to freedom of speech and peaceful protest. “This parent threatens our constitutional rights to freedom of speech as activists by trying to prohibit us from supporting families of femicide and GBV victims.”
Evans emphasised her movement had a broader mission in this instance; using it as a platform to call for fundamental reforms to the Child Justice Act, arguing that current protections for minors enable serious violent crimes to go inadequately punished. “We have children with violent behaviour perpetrating rape, firing off guns and killing other children, and enjoying the protection of the Act as minors even when they turned 18.” She said there were dangerous loopholes in current legislation.
Evans and Bibbert demand that children who commit murder receive life sentences without parole, particularly for repeat serious offences, and want parents held accountable when they fail to address known violent behaviour in their children. The case is postponed until 12 June.
Meanwhile, the convicted teen’s mother had dropped the case against journalist and author Julian Jansen who published the book The Murder of Deveney Nel.
• Last year in October the Western Cape High Court sentenced a child in conflict with the law to an effective 25-year direct imprisonment following his conviction for the murder of Deveney Nel and an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
“In such a case 25 years’ direct imprisonment is the maximum sentence the accused would receive under the law,” Eric Ntabazalila, National Prosecuting Authority Regional Communications Manager of the Western Cape, explained.
He said the accused, through his legal representative, had approached the state with an offer to enter into a plea and sentence agreement. “He confessed to the murder of Nel, an attempt to hide her body and he was sentenced to 25 years’ direct imprisonment for the murder and 12 months’ direct imprisonment for the attempt to defeat the ends of justice. The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently, effectively sentencing him to 25 years’ direct imprisonment. Both her mother, Lida Nel, and the investigating officer, detective WO Louw, were consulted before the sentence agreement was concluded, and they agreed to it.” (“Conviction and sentencing in Deveney murder welcomed, but activists say more needed”, Hermanus Times, 17 October 2025)
