Rudi van Breda lost his life in a savage attack at his home in Stellenbosch on the night of the 26th/27th January 2015. His parents were also killed that night. His sister, 16 year old Marli was critically injured. She has made a steady recovery and is now in a physical therapy rehabilitation centre. The only other survivor was Rudi’s younger brother, 20 year old Henri, who had what doctors described as self-inflicted scratches. As a result of this and other suspicious behaviour, Henri remains at the centre of a great deal of media speculation. Up to now, though,no arrests have been made. A lot of the details are on a blog I wrote 9 days after it happened. While naturally Marli and Henri have had a lot of media coverage in South Africa, there has not been a lot of news about Rudi. His broader circle of school and university friends in Australia were stunned to hear of his sudden and viscous untimely death. To remember him, one of them has written a tribute in song to him and this is the background.
Rudi (22) was raised in South Africa before the family moved to Australia. There he attended Scotch College in Perth. Rudi’s best friend at the time was Sam Fearon. They had some amazing adventures together. Sam’s mom Annie Durant lives back in the UK now and sent this to me:
“My interest stems from the fact that my son Sam and I, emigrated to Australia and lived in Perth from 2004 to 2009. During that time my son attended Scotch College in Perth and was Rudi’s best friend. Rudi was always at our house , he was like a second son to me and both Sam and I are devastated by Rudi’s death and the way in which it happened.
We knew Martin and Theresa but because Henri and Marli were younger I didn’t really know them too much except that they were usually there when I dropped Sam off at their house in Cottesloe. Sam and Rudi were very sporty and were always off playing tennis or going to the beach or playing water polo and at school there was always fierce but good natured competition between them at sport. In fact , in 2008, Sam and Rudi partnered up and swam the 19 kilometres channel swim from Perth to Rottnest.
Sam middle, Rudi far right after training for their long distance swim
There were loads of times that I stood on the shore with Martin and Theresa and timed them both doing open water swims in the 6 months training and preparation for it. I made a film of the event as I owned a company at the time in Perth, and as a company outing for staff and friends, I hired a large boat to accompany the two boys and the team of friends from Scotch college that were supporting them, including kayakers to guide them through the water, the Van Breda family were all on the boat with us.
I watched the film last week and its heartbreaking to see Rudi smiling up at me while I was filming, he was such an exceptionally handsome boy and a really lovely person, he had the whole world in front of him. Sam and Rudi had a little band of mates in Australia… Rudi, Sam, Angus, James Toby and Nick, most of them are in Brisbane house at Scotch College, they were always together and as we had a large games room at our house and a pool the friends were often together. Nick was killed last year in a road accident which again was a huge shock for Sam.
Sam is now a struggling singer/songwriter and he has written a song about Rudi and part of the words say that he had a smile you could see from space, which was an apt description.. Rudi had the widest most genuine smile which lit up his eyes, and he lit up the room, its so difficult to imagine it gone for ever.. We found accepting his death very hard indeed and so a few days after it happened, I bought two red roses and tied them together with raffia ,attached a card on which we had written a little tribute to him and a photo all sealed in a cellophane envelope so that it was waterproof. It was a typical winters day here in the UK and we went down to the coast in the howling wind and rain and found a rocky promontory where Sam walked out and threw the flowers into the crashing waves. It made us feel a little better and brought us some closure, but knowing who did this and to get some justice for Rudi would bring the biggest closure of all.
This event has made such an impact on Sam that he has left his job and has decided to go out on the road to further his career as an artist, he feels that Rudi had his life chances and opportunities taken from him and so Sam has decided to live his life for the both of them and take every chance that comes his way, so to get out of sleepy Devon and go round the country is what he has chosen to do. Sam has been out on the road ever since, sleeping on sofas and playing wherever he can.”
You can hear Sam’s song for Rudi…
There are many things in this life we will never understand.
Deuteronomy 29:29
“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one…”
Why this happened only He knows.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga