“I found my daughter in the pool of blood, dead… her boyfriend murdered her”

By Jonk wa Mashamba
news@alexreporter.co.za

Jack Mothapo (57) buried his 27-year-old daughter this past week.

Jabulisile, a mother of two children aged 9 and 4, died on 26 July 2021 after being allegedly killed by her boyfriend.

According to Mothapo, a worker at the Community Workers Program in Alexandra, Jabulisile had stayed with her female friend at 7 Selbourne, in Alexandra.

And the man, arrested and accused of her murder, lived in the same yard as hers.

After her friend with whom she stayed was worried about her whereabouts when she didn’t come, she apparently decided to go see her at her boyfriend’s.

Mothapo said that her daughter’s friend knocked on the door, but when no one answered, she opened it gently, and she found the boyfriend inside with the deceased.

It was dark and she thought her friend was asleep and went back without disturbing her. The electricity was temporarily switched off.

Mothapo said that on that fateful night, the boyfriend came to his place and reported that Jabulisile had dead.

“When I asked him how she died, he said she died from Imbawula. When I arrived in the room, the sheet she was sleeping in was covered in a pool of blood. Even the mattress was covered in blood. Blood came out of her mouth and ears, too.

“He killed her and lied to me that Imbawula killed her. That’s a cover up,” an emotional Mothapo told Alex Reporter.

(An Imbawula or brazier is a makeshift coal stove made out of a large tin with holes in the sides and is designed to burn for a long time. This heating method is commonly used in cold winter weather. It emits toxic carbon monoxide vapours as it burns)

Detective Phetheli told Alex Reporter he hadn’t gotten the autopsy yet to determine how Jabulisile died.

“All I can say for now is that circumstantial evidence against the accused is overwhelming,” Phetheli said.

Mothapo described the 37-year-old alleged perpetrator as abusive.

“What I know is that my daughter broke up with this guy after we stepped in because he was very abusive. He used to beat her up. We don’t know if they were together again.”

He is angry that his daughter’s alleged murderer, who is going to court on September 15, has been released on bail without his knowledge.

“I was never informed of his bail. In South Africa, you get justice if you have money,” he said.

Mothapo fears that the case will disappear into the void too. The first case to go missing was in 2015, when his 6-year-old niece’s father reportedly murdered her with a broom in Alexandra. And suddenly, he said, the family never heard about the case again.

“I don’t know what happened to that case. The man who killed my niece has been wandering the streets of Alex without being touched ever since.”

When Alex Reporter spoke to the Alexandra Station Commander, Brigadier Lindiwe Magudulela, about the missing case in 2015, she said, “May I have the case number or the father’s contact. I will be in the office on Monday. I will check what happened.”

Asked what should be done to help men cope with anger, Magudulela stated: “We have MASP (Men As Safety Promoters). I think we need to ask them to focus more on men, and come up with programs to assist men to learn how to manage anger. There is a lot to be done. More so we also need assistance of the Liquor board.”

Chairperson for the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), Ms Tamara Mathebula said these grim developments have darkened the meaning of women’s month.

“We view the continued killings of women as an act of confrontation to the law by GBV perpetrators.”

Toll Free Number: 0800 007 709. GBV Toll Free Number: 0800 428 428, Stop Gender Violence: 0800 150 150 Witness, Survivors and victims of GBV can send Please Call Me at *120*7867#

ALSO READ THIS SHOCKING STORY of
a boyfriend who will appear in court on Monday for chopping the body of his girlfriend into  pieces 

https://www.alexreporter.co.za/2021/08/20/boyfriend-to-appear-in-court-on-monday-for-chopping-the-body-of-his-girlfriend-into-pieces/