Bomb plot, violent threats and school stabbing: The warning signs and systemic failures surrounding Ballito teen

A six-year-old girl remains in intensive care after being stabbed in her classroom last Tuesday, allegedly by a teenager whose increasingly disturbing behaviour had raised alarm among parents for years.

Threats of violence, disturbing online activity, alleged bullying and previous incidents involving weapons. The warning signs appeared to be mounting.

How did a local teenager reach the point of allegedly planting a home-made bomb in a crowded shopping mall and stabbing a young girl at a school? Could the violence have been prevented?

Seven parents whose children had encountered the teenager told the Courier of increasingly alarming behaviour. They cannot be identified to protect the children involved.

One said the teenager repeatedly sent her child Nazi videos despite being asked to stop. Another described disturbing videos in which he allegedly instructed her child to call him “daddy” and said he wanted to beat him.

A third alleged he had threatened to shoot people at another school, subsequently named in a manifesto linked to the alleged Ballito Junction bomb plot.

In 2024, the teenager was implicated in an alleged attempted stabbing following claims that he had been cyberbullied. This was followed by an alleged pepper-spray incident on March 4, the alleged Ballito Junction bomb plot on March 29 and the October 13 stabbing at The Creative Class Room.

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The two most recent incidents were preceded by graphic manifestos.

A confidential source with access to the second manifesto said it contained more explicit expressions of hatred towards Jewish people, religion and women, along with references to several mass shooters.

Among them was Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 children and two teachers at a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022. The source said the author expressed a desire to emulate the attack.

The manifesto also reportedly contained references to incel ideology, an online subculture in which some members blame women for their inability to form romantic or sexual relationships.

A former classmate said the teenager’s behaviour had deteriorated dramatically since 2024.

“Where he was in 2024 I can definitely say he is nowhere as bad as now, he was still a decent person then… only after he left the school things changed darkly,” the teen said.

A mental health professional familiar with the case said the teenager and his mother had sought help for years, but public and private mental health services had failed them.

They said his father’s death in 2024 was a turning point, after which he reportedly found belonging in the online true crime community (TCC), also referenced in his first manifesto.

“If he had received the right help from the age of 14, we wouldn’t be here now,” the source said.

The source alleged that police repeatedly failed to act because of his age, missing opportunities for intervention under the Children’s Act, Child Justice Act and Mental Health Care Act.

Clinical psychologist and former Saps head profiler Dr Gérard Labuschagne raised similar concerns in July, saying police should not allow mental health concerns to delay criminal investigations.

Labuschagne has since reiterated that a violence risk assessment should have been conducted, examining the teenager’s school history, social circumstances, mental health and online activity.

This should have been followed by a safety plan to protect individuals, schools and potential victims, he said.

“This is not a psychological assessment. People mistakenly believe the solution is to send the person off to a psychologist,” he said.

Instead, this would have identified appropriate interventions, including mental healthcare, disengagement from harmful online groups and reintegration into schooling.

“He essentially needs to be de-radicalised,” Labuschagne said.

A police source questioned why some earlier incidents had not resulted in formal complaints, potentially limiting opportunities for intervention.

Following the alleged mall bomb plot, Institute for Security Studies specialist Willem Els said the incident appeared to meet the legal criteria for terrorism. He criticised what he regarded as failures by police to follow bomb-threat procedures.

Police opened an intimidation case and released the teenager into his mother’s care. The matter was never enrolled in court, reportedly because of insufficient evidence, and remained out of the public eye until the Courier reported on it in July.

The Courier has found no evidence that schools or families of children named in the first manifesto were formally warned.

Since the stabbing, concerned parents have contacted the newspaper asking whether their children were named.

The teenager’s mother previously declined to comment and asked not to be contacted again.

Meanwhile, the six-year-old victim remains in intensive care after a second operation last Friday.

“She is making progress but has a long road ahead of her,” said IPSS Medical Rescue director Dylan Meyrick, whose team transported her to hospital.