It is really sad what he has put us through, says ex-wife

FOR Karol Pillay, her husband Neville’s video came as a surprise.

The 47-year-old said three days earlier, she had found out that he had smoked dagga with a friend.

“He said he was going to a pharmacy for medication because he had a script,” said Karol. “A few hours went by and he didn’t return. I then found out that he had been smoking weed somewhere. When he got home, I confronted him.”

She said she told him that he smelt of cannabis and that she would not allow him into the home. Karol said he told her that it was his business and no one could stop him.

“Weed is a trigger of the past for my kids and I,” said Karol. “That same day, I booked him in at a guest house on Essenwood (now Stephen Dlamini) Road for two nights at R600 a night so he could calm down. We could not be in that situation.”

She said he called her that evening to tell her he would not mention dagga again at home. Two days later (last Wednesday), Karol said he came home.

“He told us that the weed was his pain medication and that he wanted us to allow him to keep it in our home. We know about his pain and we always tried to accommodate him. When we found out that he started smoking weed again, we got him CBD (cannabidiol) oil from a pharmaceutical company.

“Neville said it was not helping, so we bought different oils. We always made sure that the oils he was taking were the right one but he didn’t want that. He wanted the feeling of a high that weed puts you on.”

Karol said Neville insisted the cannabis be kept at home. Out of anger, she threw her coffee cup on the floor.

“By this time Neville was raging mad. He called me names. He taunted me about drugs. He said that I did nothing for him and he even swore my kids. My youngest daughter was crying. She asked him to stop. He brought a knife from the kitchen and held it to his fistula [on the arm, created for dialysis to cause extra blood to flow into a vein] and said ‘end me now, you know you want to’.”

She said she managed to get the knife away from him and called his mother and her parents.

“He kept egging me on by saying ‘hit me, hit me’ and I slapped him on the face. That’s all I did. I never punched him. I picked up the broom to sweep the glass pieces of my cup but he stepped on it. Eventually, we told him to leave and we packed his stuff. At no point did I hit him with a broom, or beat him with his laptop bag.”

Karol said he messaged her that evening to inform her that he intended opening a criminal case against her.

The POST has seen text messages from Pillay that confirm this.

In one message, he said he would report his vehicle missing if Karol did not answer her phone. The car was, however, still parked at home.

She received another message where Neville claimed he was at the police station.

Karol said she eventually fell asleep. The following morning, she said several friends and family called to see if she and their children were okay.

“That’s how I found out about the video that he made. His fans messaged me and called me names. They wished bad things on me and my kids.”

She denied that he was kept in a room. She said they lived in a three-bedroom home and they each accommodated him.

“If Neville wants to sleep in another room, we move out and leave him there. If he wants something to eat, we make it. If he had an itch, we would scratch it. My kids are around their father 80% of the day. When people visit, we call him to sit with us. Neville has never been alone.”

Karol said Neville was given a second chance at life.

“On the same day he released the video, his medical aid had kicked in and I was supposed to get tested to see if I could donate my kidney to him. It’s really sad what he has put us through.”