A Khayelitsha woman was found dead 20km from her home in Mfuleni, more than a week after she disappeared, despite social media appeals for her safe return.
Now the family of Aviwe Jam Jam, 26, are trying to piece together the puzzle of her last moments after her bruised body was discovered inside the Vygieskraal Stadium in Athlone on July 29 – but only on Monday was her family finally informed that she had died.
Jam Jam last spoke to her family while at her boyfriend’s house in Mfuleni on July22. When they did not hear from her for several days, and she failed to pitch up for work at the Cape Town International Airport, they opened a missing person’s case with the police.
Yesterday Jam Jam’s family described her boyfriend, who was arrested by the police on an unrelated matter, as someone who was violent and jealous.
According to them, Jam Jam’s stepfather was once assaulted by him, but later dropped the charges out of fear.
Police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said a post-mortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Yesterday police would not confirm that Jam Jam’s boyfriend, who is also the father of the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, had been arrested.
A family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Jam Jam was supposed to have visited her family on the day she went missing, but never came. She had been living with her boyfriend for the past three months.
“The boyfriend was called and asked about Aviwe’s whereabouts, and said he did not know. They were living together, and it puzzled the family that he did not know.
“On the third day after she disappeared the family asked the boyfriend to accompany them to a police station, but he never made it; instead he told the family that he was in Joburg,” said the family member.
Three days after a missing person’s case was reported, the family, in the company of police, went to the boyfriend’s house to search for clues, but did not find any.
“I had sleepless nights since she disappeared because in the back of my mind I knew something was not right,” said another family member.
The family told the Cape Times the boyfriend was very violent, to the extent that they had had to flee from their own home.
“We opened a case against him but he was never arrested. We had to abandon our own house and live somewhere else, because he could have returned to finish us off.
‘‘He is very dangerous and violent,” the family member said.
Police minister Fikile Mbalula condemned Jam Jam’s death and called for communities to act against the abuse of women. In another case, police have kept mum on the investigation involving the missing Likhona Ntsele, 21, who was last seen on August 1 about 3pm in Philippi East.
She was wearing a tracksuit top, old navy T-shirt, blue jeans and short black boots.
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