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Cape Town - Martin van Breda, 54, who was found murdered at his home on an exclusive golf estate in Stellenbosch on Tuesday along with his wife and eldest son, was a successful businessman who had directorships in at least 25 companies.
A search of company directorship records shows Van Breda had a number of interests in the education and property sector.
Van Breda's Linked In profile states he was educated at Kuswag High School in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, before completing an engineering degree at Stellenbosch University in 1983. He completed an MBA degree at the University of Pretoria in 1987.
Van Breda owned the Australian subsidiary of international property group Engel & Völkers and the family lived in Perth for a period of time before moving back to South Africa last year. Linked In lists him as MD of Engel & Völkers Australia.
Properties
A deeds search shows the family's De Zalze Golf Estate home was bought in the name of Merwood Consultants for R4.6m in 2014.
The family also owned a property in Knysna which was purchased for R1.4m in 2004.
According to The Times, Van Breda founded Netstar which he then sold to Altech.
Netwerk24 reported that Van Breda developed Woodhill College, a private school in Pretoria, before JSE-listed Curro Holdings bought it from him for R185m in 2011. The school's hall is named the Martin van Breda Auditorium.
According to property group Engel & Völkers South Africa, Van Breda bought the master licence for Australia from the group's head office in Germany eight years ago.
Business interests
Other business interests include directorships of investment, property and education companies, including Edugro Holdings and Meridium Colleges in Polokwane, Pretoria and Rustenburg. He was also a director of an education fund, and of Smartscan, which provides machine guarding and safety products.
Van Breda previously held directorships of Waterkloof Security Village, Meridian College, Woodhill College and Woodhill College Property Listings.
His wife, Teresa van Breda, studied computer science at Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg) and previously worked at IBM, according to her Facebook profile. She lists herself as being from Johannesburg, moving to Perth, and living in Stellenbosch.
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