Witness tells court man paid pupil R10 to find Miguel Louw
A juvenile witness has given testimony in the Durban High Court of how a man arrived at Miguel Louw’s school in Sydenham, on the day the boy went missing and offered another schoolboy money to find Miguel.
The trial of Mahomed Ebrahim, who is accused of the 10-year-old boy's murder started on Tuesday.
The body's was found in a bush in Phoenix, weeks after he went missing from outside his school in July last year.
READ: Miguel Louw murder trial delayed
The witness told the court, how a man arrived at the school on the day Miguel went missing and offered to pay a learner money to find him.
The 14-year-old boy told the court that on the day of Miguel’s disappearance, a man whom he described as, short with a long nose, big eyes, and darkish complexion stood outside the school gate.
The child says the man stopped another learner and offered to pay the pupil R10 to find Miguel.
The juvenile witness says though that the pupil couldn't find Miguel. He says he walked home and left the man at the gate.
State prosecutor, Kelvin Singh asked the witness if he had seen the man before. The boy replied that he had seen the man with Miguel’s mother, Raylene Louw of couple times.
He told the court he had thought the man was Miguel’s father.
Earlier, Singh told the court that the case was unique because the state and defence would work with circumstantial evidence.
The court later saw footage of the last day Miguel was seen alive.
Senior state prosecutor, Kelvin Singh played two videos, obtained from CCTV footage.
In the first video clip, Miguel and Ebrahim are seen entering a fast food outlet near his Sydenham school.
Ebrahim is seen ordering a meal and then he and the boy sit down at the back of the restaurant to wait for their order.
The two appear to engage in a conversation and Ebrahim is seen laughing.
After they receive their order, Miguel and Ebrahim walk out of the store and Ebrahim is seen taking Miguel’s hand.
The second footage from a store across the road from the fast food outlet shows a view of the taxi rank.
A taxi is seen approaching, a man and a child are seen running towards it. It's unknown if the two board the taxi because they disappear out of shot.
During his bail application, Ebrahim has previously said that after leaving the fast food outlet he got onto a taxi to town and believes Miguel walked home with the food.
Miguel's aunt, Tasneem Dos Santos says they are all still traumatised.
"We are praying that justice must be served today. Being here and going through all of this opens a whole can of worms. You'll never come to terms of what happened."
"You can understand when someone died of natural causes, you deal with it. But, something like this, how do you every heal or move forward?" she questioned.
The trial resumes on Wednesday.
