Boyfriend ‘would be likely to kill’
THE Investigating officer probing the case of murdered Aviwe Jam-Jam described her boyfriend, Linda Ntulo, who is accused of murdering her, as someone who was violent, a flight risk and who had the potential to kill if released on bail.
Officer Benjamin Barker testified in a full Athlone Magistrate’s Court that JamJam’s family feared Ntulo.
Barker said two men who had been arrested shortly after the murder had the charges of defeating the ends of justice withdrawn against them, and had since turned State witnesses.
They had told him “they did not want to get involved” in the disposal of Jam-Jam’s body.
Jam-Jam, the mother of a two-year-old, was found dead 20km from the home she shared with Ntulo more than a week after she disappeared.
Her stepfather, Mike Mguga, said Barker’s testimony was helping the family piece together the puzzle of her last moments after her bruised body was discovered inside the Vygieskraal Stadium in Athlone on July 29.
Jam-Jam last spoke to her family while at her boyfriend’s house on July 22. When they did not hear from her for several days a missing person’s case was opened with the police.
Barker said Ntulo had written in a statement under oath that he last saw Jam-Jam on the morning of July 29 when she told him she was going to a hairdressing salon.
When Jam-Jam did not return by the afternoon Ntulo said he took their child to his mother and spent that night at another girlfriend’s house.
Barker asked the court to refuse Ntulo bail, saying he had not only abused Jam-Jam, but also previous girlfriends, resulting in one spending two months in hospital.
“She (Jam-Jam) was scared of the accused. The accused is also a danger to society, the community and the family,” said Barker, adding that should Ntulo be granted bail he “has a likelihood to commit a similar offence”.
Jam-Jam flew to Johannesburg earlier this year as she was scared of him, Barker said, and Ntulo told her to come back or “she will know who he is”.
He said Ntulo was a member of a gang operating in Khayelitsha, Philippi East and Nyanga.
Takkies with blood stains, a paper bag with towels inside it and a blanket were some of the items that the police confiscated at Jam-Jam’s house and sent to a laboratory.
The investigation was not complete, with a “few things outstanding” including crime scene photos and DNA results of blood stains found in Ntulo’s kitchen, said Barker.
The case has been postponed to Thursday to allow Ntulo’s lawyer to cross-examine Barker.
The next day Ntulo will appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court for the attempted murder of Mguga, and a charge of malicious damage to property from an incident that happened in March.