MY HENRI’S NOT A KILLER
The young man accused of the De Zalze axe murders ‘couldn’t do such a thing’, says the 20-year-old who’s madly in love with him
SHE’S dyed her hair since the storm broke and the jet-black colour makes her look pale under the lights of the Cape Town restaurant where she’s agreed to meet us. She wanted to do something so fewer people would recognise her, she says – although she’s determined to just carry on with her life and be as supportive as possible to the man she regards as the love of her life.
Daniellé Janse van Rensburg (20) is the young woman who was in the front row of the courtroom when Henri van Breda (21) appeared for the first time to face charges in connection with the murder of his parents and brother and the attempted murder of his little sister.
He turned around and smiled at her before being granted R100 000 bail and left the Stellenbosch magistrate’s court with her.
She and Henri have been an item for the past four months after meeting at the Capsicum Chef School in Salt River, Cape Town, in February, she tells us.
Daniellé knew nothing about the murders on the De Zalze Estate near Stellenbosch, Western Cape, when they met, she says. So it was a shock to find herself at the centre of a media frenzy when he was arrested. Everyone wanted to know who she was – and now she’s speaking out about the man she refuses to hear a bad word about.
To her he’s the tall, good-looking, blueeyed guy who kept staring at her in class. They became friends before someone told her he was that Henri – the only person to have escaped the house of death relatively unscathed. His parents, Martin (54) and Teresa (55), and his brother, Rudi (22), were axed to death while his sister, Marli (now 17), was left fighting for her life with an axe wound in the head and a severed jugular.
“I felt terrible when I heard about it,” she says. “It was awful that someone had been through something like that.”
Daniellé seems shy and soft-spoken but she’s determined to have her say – because even though Henri warned her there would be speculation and rumours about his involvement with the murders it’s impossible for her to believe he had anything to do with them. To her he’s the gentle guy who stole her heart – not a monster suspected of slaughtering his family. By ALMARI WESSELS & NADIA HONIBALL LEFT: Henri van Breda and Daniellé Janse van Rensburg met as students at a chef school in Cape Town. BELOW: It was difficult for her when he had to spend a night in a police cell but she supported him in court the next morning.