A change to the Criminal Procedure Act makes it illegal to name a person who committed a crime while under the age of 18.
On 13 January 2026, Daily Maverick published an article headlined "The return of Waterkloof Four's 'God's child', and the gravity of violence, privilege and media".
In the article, we gave the name of a member of the Waterkloof Four - four Pretoria teens convicted of the brutal murder of a homeless man in 2001 - who was recently accused of further wrongdoing.
It has since been brought to our attention that naming that individual is in contravention of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) since a 2022 amendment to the legislation.
Section 154 (3) now prohibits revealing the identity of a person who was under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of an offence - regardless of whether they were named by the media before the amendment to the legislation came into effect.
The law does not apply retroactively, which means that media produced before 2022 that name such individuals is still acceptable. This creates a strange situation where anyone can Google the Waterkloof Four and instantly establish the identity of the four perpetrators, but media wishing to reflect back on such a case - or report on criminal developments involving one of the perpetrators -...
