A young soccer-playing father has been stabbed to death for apparently telling a joke.
Ayden Manuel, 24, died the day after his club Lavender Hill Football Club won the South Peninsula Local Football Association League.
On Saturday night, he made a joke which his killer apparently didn’t like, and was stabbed in the neck and chest in Pontac Court, Lavender Hill.
Ayden’s girlfriend Meagan Jones, 24, says: “I was at home when Mark [Nicholson], the chairman of his club, came to tell me that Ayden had been injured.
“We quickly went to Retreat Day Hospital where I was informed that he had passed on already.”
The heartbroken woman says the details she received are still sketchy.
“I know there was a joke that he told to the suspects, he was like that, he would tell jokes all the time.
“What confused me is that they grew up with him and they knew the type of person he was.
“He would never fight with anyone, he was a loving person who in my eyes was perfect.”
Ayden, who lived with Meagan and their three-year-old daughter Asia in Retreat, was a construction worker with a passion for football.
“He was a defender and he loved the sport. The first time I met him he was playing a match in Lavender Hill,” says Meagan.
“He was an ace, he was so passionate about soccer.
“He loved his daughter and me, and we had great plans that one day we would get married.”
The grief-stricken vrou says when she took leave earlier this year, she didn’t know it would be for her boyfriend’s funeral.
“I took two weeks off, we planned on enjoying the time together.
“I had no idea it was going to be for his funeral arrangement and service. I am devastated by this.
“My daughter asked me where he was but because we lost four people this year, I explained that he joined them and that he will not come back,” Meagan tells the Daily Voice.
Nicholson says Ayden was at a baby shower when he was stabbed.
“He was just teasing the guy, [but] I can’t say if that is what really got him killed.
“It shouldn’t have happened, he wasn’t the kind of person who would go out and look for trouble.”
Police spokesperson warrant officer Joseph Swartbooi says a 24-year-old suspect was arrested in connection with the murder and will appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court today.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za