Durban - Mohamed Vahed Ebrahim and Raylene Louw had an argument three days before her son Miguel went missing about one of the three men she was communicating with at the time.
Ebrahim apparently also declared his love for her, which she rejected, considering him a friend.
Miguel, 9, went missing on July 17, 2018 after school.
It is alleged that Ebrahim, who frequently visited Louw, kidnapped Miguel and killed him. His body was later found in bushes in the vicinity of Ebrahim’s Phoenix home.
Louw said the men who triggered the arguments were a tenant at her mother’s home, her ex-boyfriend Michael, and a man she said she only met once and who she was communicating with on WhatsApp; she could not remember his name.
She told the court on Tuesday that the argument, when Ebrahim got jealous that she had been drinking with her ex-boyfriend at her mother’s house, was not the first argument driven by his jealousy.
In the first incident, she was sitting with one of her mom’s tenants when Ebrahim got angry.
“He tried to attack me. He chased me around the house. I told him to stay away from me and my children. I messaged my daughter Mikayla not to open the door for him. When I told him to stay away from me, he said he was going to show me,” she said.
Louw said she asked a tenant to walk her to the front door because she was terrified of Ebrahim, who she worked with at a butchery.
“I found him sitting on the stairs when my daughter opened for me. I told him again to stay away from me and my children,” she said.
Louw said she saw Ebrahim again in the yard the next morning and did not talk to him. That afternoon he sent her messages saying he was sorry.
The second incident, which happened three days before Miguel went missing, was also motivated by jealousy. “I was in the kitchen with my ex-boyfriend Michael. We were having a drink and he (Ebrahim) was watching TV. He barged into the kitchen and tried to attack me. He raised his voice. He started chasing me around the table and my mom intervened.
“He said I was making him a fool and that he loved me. I told him that we were just friends and that he was mad,” said Louw.
She said she had sent Ebrahim a message asking him to remove her picture on his WhatsApp profile, because her boyfriend would be jealous.
She said she wanted him out of the house.
On the day Miguel went missing, she left the house to see her ex-husband Kirk Louw in Wentworth, and her mother had gone to the hospital.
Under cross-examination, Louw had difficulty in saying when the incidents she testified about had happened, including when she started and ended her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Michael.
Advocate Jay Naidoo questioned why she never told her mother about the first attack and that she wanted him out of the house.
“Didn’t you fear that he was going to harm your children, since the accused was still there or is it because he had never given you a reason to fear for your children’s safety?” he asked.
Louw said Ebrahim was violent towards her, and it was possible for him to be violent towards her children.
The trial continues.