De Zalze security claims are nonsense‚ Van Breda lawyer says

It was the scene of his family home‚ somewhere he watched Star Trek and drank wine with his parents.

But on Tuesday Henri van Breda simply stared at imagery of the De Zalze estate in Stellenbosch on a large television screen that had been brought into courtroom one at the High Court in Cape Town.

His defence counsel‚ Piet Botha‚ wanted to show that security at the official entry and exit points at the gated community is entirely lax and that cars often drive in and out "with no record at all".

Van Breda is in the dock for the murder of his mother‚ father and brother‚ and the attempted murder of his younger sister‚ Marli.

After seven days of trial‚ the state has emphasised the lack of evidence that an intruder breached the boundaries of the estate‚ while the defence has gone to great lengths to show flaws in the overall system.

On Tuesday‚ Botha sought to show that cars can drive through the boom at the Kleine Zalze restaurant‚ which is attached to the residential section. This comes after days of him focusing on the high electric fences that surround the property.

De Zalze security manager Marcia Rossouw‚ who was also on the witness stand on Monday‚ was less sure of her responses on Tuesday — because the footage provided irrefutable evidence that cars went in and out unrecorded.

After showing the footage and comparing it to the records‚ Botha asked Rossouw: "Can you see that it is nonsense that a record is kept of every car that comes and goes onto the estate?"

Rossouw pointed out that "when a vehicle's registration number is taken down but the vehicle isn't logged‚ it is because the staff have access cards".

The case continues.