After a year in jail, arch criminal "Ma-eleven" was on his way to an early release.
Leeuwkop Prison's youngest inmate had completed various life-skills courses and, many believed, had learnt his lesson.
But it has now emerged that the tiny tsotsi has been caught up in a bloody fight with fellow inmates that ended in him cutting a boy with a razor blade.
The Department of Correctional Services on Thursday confirmed that the fight erupted over money that Ma-eleven allegedly owed a fellow prisoner.
The inmate who gave him the loan had asked a friend to help him get his money back. A fight allegedly broke out between Ma-eleven and the friend, who was cut with a razor blade on his left cheek. He has already been treated for the wounds.
But a new criminal case now awaits Ma-eleven, and his parole - around August - has been cancelled, the department said.
Ma-eleven, now 14, is serving two separate (but concurrent) two-year sentences for theft.
The boy, who began a career in crime when he was 9, has broken out of endless places of safety and courtrooms, and has been given dozens of chances by Soweto courts.
He has become notorious at the Protea magistrate's court, where almost every police officer knows him.
Each time Ma-eleven made a court appearance he was heavily shackled and guarded by up to five prison warders.
The fight took place last month and Ma-eleven is due in court at the end of July.
His family found out about his new problem when they went to visit him, but were told that he had been moved to a new section of the prison.
Correctional Services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said they were doing their best to "ensure safe and humane custody for all offenders" but that fights between inmates were difficult to prevent.
"Ma-eleven has now been charged departmentally and his imminent date of release has been withdrawn," Wolela said.
For months, Legal Aid lawyer Dinesh Latchman has tried to get Ma-eleven out of jail. His family are frightened of what the community - fed up with the boy's crimes - would do to them if he comes home.