Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Further worries for Van Breda
SOON after appearing in court this week on a drug possession charge, family axe murder accused Henri van Breda and girlfriend Daniellá Janse van Rensburg had another brush with the law.
This time the couple’s encounter was with the Cape Town Traffic Department, which has slapped them with a fine for driving a vehicle without a valid licence disc.
The contravention was picked up during a routine patrol by a traffic officer. The discovery of the pink ticket flapping in Wednesday’s hot breeze elicited an impromptu legal conference in the street with Van Breda’s lawyer, Lorinda van Niekerk, and his girlfriend’s counsel, advocate Daniël Frans Claassens.
While Van Breda, Van Rensburg and Claassens inspected the licence disc to confirm it had expired, Van Niekerk was seen scrutinising the ticket.
A short while later Van Breda dutifully paid his parking fee to a marshal, who con- firmed afterwards that the fine was for an expired licence disc.
Although the car belongs to Van Rensburg, her beau got behind the wheel of the vehicle and cruised off in the direction of the High Court, where he will appear next month on charges of axing his mother, father and brother to death, and attempting to murder his younger sister, Marli.
Van Breda is on bail of R100 000 for the January 2015 family slaying. The National Prosecuting Authority confirmed this week that the drug charge against the 21-year-old Van Breda has not broken any of his bail conditions.
Van Breda and Van Rensburg were arrested in Table View in September after police found a bag of dagga and a dagga crusher in their car.
Van Breda was granted bail of R1 000 and Janse van Rensburg bail of R200 at their first appearance, where she was reported as admitting that the dagga found was hers.
At Wednesday’s appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, the case was postponed until April 2016 pending an assessment report on Van Rensburg being compiled by the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders.
The assessment is standard procedure for first-time offenders appearing on minor charges.
Van Niekerk confirmed the fine “but didn’t have the slightest idea what further steps were taken with regards to (resolving) the matter”.
Asked if Van Breda’s brushes with the law complicated his legal predicament, she said: “No, the vehicle does not belong to Henri so the expired licence does not complicate his matter at all.
“The charge with regards to the drugs is unfortunate but Daniella has already admitted the dagga belongs to her. So our focus is on the High Court matter.”
Regarding Van Breda driving his girlfriend’s unlicensed vehicle, Van Niekerk said: “I haven’t seen any one of them driving the vehicle so I can’t say.”