A case of murder has been opened against the boy, and the father has been charged with failure to safeguard a firearm.
A dark cloud descended upon the Eastern Cape town of Mqanduli on Thursday when an eight-year-old boy shot and killed his seven-year-old cousin.
According to the South African Police Service (Saps), the boy had accessed his father’s licenced firearm from the bedroom and pointed it at the cousin.
A shot went off, killing the boy instantly.
Legal steps against father and child
Eastern Cape Saps spokesperson Captain Welile Matyolo said cases of murder and negligence or failure to safeguard a firearm have been opened at Kwaaiman Police Station.
“A case of murder was opened against the eight-year-old boy, whilst a failure to safeguard a firearm charge was laid against the 48-year-old father,” Matyolo said.
“The father has been released on warning and [was] due to appear before the Mqanduli Magistrate’s Court on Friday, 3 October 2025, while the eight-year-old boy has been referred to social workers,” he added.
According to the Child Justice Act, children under the age of 12 years cannot be arrested because they do not have criminal capacity.
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And while a case of murder was opened against the eight-year-old, the act dictates that he cannot be charged or arrested for an offence.
“In such a case, the child will be referred to the Children’s Court,” it stipulates.
Children’s Court process
Karabo Ozah, director at the Centre for Child Law and a lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria, says the Children’s Court involves the process of assessing the child through social workers.
“The law sets out how the child must then be assessed by social workers who must determine if there are any family issues or any problems that need to be addressed, and they must arrange for counselling,” Ozah told The Citizen.
“The child can’t go to trial,” she added.
She said if there are suspicions that conditions at home contributed to the boy’s actions, they might recommend that he be removed from the home and placed in someone else’s care.
However, that is not something that is encouraged, Ozah said.
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Risks of family separation
“If a child is traumatised by something that happened to them, if you remove them from the people they are close to, there are also other repercussions that come with that. You might be thinking you are helping the child, but in the end, it feels like punishment,” she said.
“It compounds the trauma for the child because they feel as though they did something and their family is now in trouble, and there are no familiar people to go through this with them.”
Instead, it’s encouraged for the entire family to go through the Children’s Court process.
Ozah said the father cannot be charged with murder because he didn’t discharge the gun.
Importance of gun safety in homes
“This is reminding us that we need to be careful and adhere to the rules of how we store guns and making sure that children don’t have access to them.”
For all you know, Ozah said, the boy thought it was a toy gun.
