A juvenile witness described in the Durban high court on Tuesday how a man offered to pay a pupil R10 to find slain Miguel Louw at the school he attended on the day he disappeared.

The court ruled at the start of the trial of Mohammed Vahed Ebrahim that the identity of two young witnesses could not be revealed.

The boy, who was the first of the two witnesses to testify, gave evidence via a court intermediary.

The child told the court that he had seen the man once previously in the company of Miguel's mother Raylene.

"I thought this man was Miguel's father as I had seen him with his mother."

He described the man as having "a long nose, darkish, big eyes and not tall".

Ebrahim had earlier pleaded not guilty to charges of theft, murder and kidnapping of the boy in July 2018.

State advocate Kelvin Singh said although there was no eyewitness to the murder and no murder weapon "we have a series of probabilities".

The second young witness is still to testify.

The trial continues.