Cape Town - A few months ago Aviwe Jam-Jam abandoned her job at the Airports Company SA and, with the help of relatives, fled to Johannesburg to escape her abusive boyfriend.
But, under pressure from her mother and with the promise of an interview for a hotel job, the glamorous 26-year-old, who’d once aspired to be a model, made the fatal decision to return to Cape Town.
Here she met a terrible death and her badly-battered body was found in Athlone earlier this week.
Her grieving father, Libha Jam-Jam, who raised his daughter and her brother, told the Weekend Argus
how Aviwe had pleaded with her stepmother for help to leave Cape Town a few months ago.
Aviwe Jam-Jam, who was beaten to death. Her body was dumped near the Vygieskraal stadium in Athlone.
“She explained to my wife that she was in trouble and wanted to get away from her abusive boyfriend. She said she wanted to go to Johannesburg and my wife gave her the money she needed.
“I dropped her off at the airport and called my brother, informing him that she was on her way.
“As weeks passed, her mother kept calling her to come home but she did not want to and when she asked me what to do I said she should stay there.
“About two months after her being there, I got a call from my brother telling me he is on his way to drop Aviwe off at the airport as her mother said she had an interview at some hotel, Jam-Jam recalled, adding that this was the last he’d heard of his daughter until she went missing - only to be found dead.
It was the last end anyone had expected for the lively young girl who, after matriculating at Cape Town High School in the city centre, studied tourism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where she graduated with a diploma.
Aviwe Jam-Jam as a baby
Jam-Jam said his daughter loved people and never wanted to see or hear anyone argue. She was always singing and dancing.
“Her high spirits were always a comfort to us all,” he said.
She moved to live with her mother and stepfather about four years ago but last year went to live with her 29-year-old boyfriend and their two-year-old son in the gated community of Summerville, in Kuils River.
She was reported missing by her family at the end of last month and her body was found at Vygieskraal Stadium, in Athlone, earlier this week. Aviwe’s mother, Nomthandazo Jam-Jam, said she was told that her daughter’s body was dumped out of a car there.
“Witnesses who called the police said they saw a car reverse into the stadium. Then a group of men came out carrying the body. They placed her neatly on the ground and drove off,” she said.
She said it was clear from the state of her daughter’s body that she was brutally assaulted.
Jam-Jam says everything went wrong after his daughter moved out of his house and he blames Aviwe’s mother for allowing her and her brother to meet the wrong type of people.
Aviwe’s boyfriend is currently in custody for allegedly seriously assaulting her stepfather at his Khayelitsha home two months ago.
Aviwe Jam-Jam as a young girl
He was not arrested in connection with Aviwe’s murder but her family have pointed the finger of blame in his direction.
“He called Aviwe’s mother a week prior to her body being found and told her he was going to kill her, he said it,” claimed Jam-Jam.
A friend, who wants to remain anonymous, said Aviwe had a toxic relationship with her boyfriend.
“He went to my home looking for her and I told him I did not know where she was. He insisted that I open all the rooms in the house so he could search for her.
“They had a very toxic relationship.
“The physical abuse was just half of it,” she said.