Children commit crimes and are sent to juvenile centres to await their trials or to serve their sentences

In a nation notorious for its prisons, a bid to lower the age of criminal liability has provoked a storm.

A drive to a funeral gave insight into a plan to adopt young offenders and guide them back into society.

In February 2011, there were 861 children in prison, under the age of 18, and 54 075 youth between the ages of 18 and 25.

The Cape Town government may shut down a facility that gives hope to boys whom society has shunned. Ilham Rawoot reports.