It is with some sadness that I write about this topic again. It’s not a pleasant one and one that I wish never happened.
The barbaric murder of three of the van Breda family at De Zalze estate, Stellenbosch, almost a month ago rocked the community, the city and the country. Sixteen year old Marli van Breda was left for dead, but survived, only just. With her life hanging by a thread she was rushed to hospital, under-went emergency brain surgery and has started a long road to recovery. She will never be the same again. Her condition is described as improving, but the reports we read in the press continue to say that she cannot yet communicate sufficiently enough to say what happened that night and there is no guarantee that she ever will. Tragic to the extreme. I pray for her full recovery. I pray for God’s miraculous touch on her entire body, not so that she can say who did this to her family, but rather so that she can live a full and whole life, walking in God’s destiny for her. Only He can turn this horrendous test into a testimony.
While the van Breda family were murdered overnight, Henri van Breda called the emergency services only after daybreak on Tuesday 27th January 2015. The news given in the latest newspaper report from the Times Live website all points at Henri having committed this unspeakable brutal crime. The newspaper says everything except “Henri did it.” It says, “A doctor who examined him after the attack said the cuts and bruises he sustained on his arms were self-inflicted. It is also believed Henri was addicted to tik and that his allowance had been cut off shortly before the attacks.” And goes onto say this…
My heart breaks for Marli as I think of her without family comforting her, without visitors who she knows, who love her, being by her side 24/7. It is hugely distressing. I can only imagine that the person cited as ‘close to her’ is one of the nursing staff assigned to her care.
If Henri is not responsible for these murders, I look forward to more reporting that clears his name and reveals who did. There seems to have been no ‘man-hunt’ – no descriptions of the attacker, no ‘most-wanted’. We do know that lawyers have been hired to attend to Henri’s legal needs. If it was him, he is surely going to need them. If it was him, he may plead insanity, but that won’t prevent him from having to live with himself for the rest of his life.
Luke 23:34
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Pray.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga