TOUGH NEW HOME FOR HENRI

Axe murderer Henri van Breda has been moved to one of the country's most dangerous prisons

- JANA VAN DER MERWE & JOANIE BERGH

A FORBIDDING fortress lies on the outskirts of A Bryanston, Johannesburg. Rows of green roofs are surrounded by concrete walls and razor wire, and armed guards patrol the enormous complex around the clock.

This is where more than 32 000 prisoners, among them some of SA's most dangerous criminals, are kept behind lock and key to pay for their deeds. It's overcrowded, prison gangs conduct a reign of terror, and last year an inmate murdered a female guard.

Welcome to Leeuwkop, one of the country's most notorious maximum-security prisons and a place where no one would choose to be. Yet two months ago a new prisoner was transferred here at his own request, according to someone in his inner circle.

The prisoner is Henri van Breda, who was found guilty of one of the most gruesome family murders in South African legal history. In 2015 he used an axe to kill his wealthy parents, Martin (54) and Teresa (55), and brother, Rudi (22). His sister, Marli (then 16), survived the attack but sustained serious head injuries.

Van Breda was 20 when he committed familicide - the term given when someone kills several close family members in quick succession - at the family home in the upmarket De Zalze Golf Estate near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.

He's now 27 and for the past four years has been locked up in the Drakenstein prison near the picturesque Boland town of Franschhoek.

His cell in the prison's C-Max section became his home in 2018 after Western Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai sentenced him to three life sentences.