By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former accused turned state witness, Laurentia Lombaard has been on the stand since Thursday concluded her evidence in chief on Monday for the state.
The child’s mother Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Apollis and Steveno van Rhyn are facing charges of kidnapping and human trafficking.
This after seven-year-old Joshlin went missing a year ago.
The trio have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Testifying on Monday about the happenings on Friday 23 February 2024, Lombaard said she was standing at the window of her shack in an informal settlement in the Middelpos area of Saldanha Bay when Kelly Smith — the mother of Joslin and two other young children — “come walking along the dirt road”.
By this stage, efforts to find Joslin were frenetic, with residents and police searching with K9 dog units, drones, a helicopter and additional officers. The child’s disappearance had made national and international headlines.
“I called her, and she said ‘No Rens, don’t call my name so loud, because people are looking for me’, “Lombaard said.
“I went out of my home to her and saw it was Kelly, Boeta [Boeta, who is also Smith’s partner] and another man and woman walking with them to Kelly’s house.
“I didn’t know the man and the woman. Kelly was walking in front, with Boeta behind, and the other people after Boeta.”
Lombaard said she followed Smith into her shack, while the strangers remained outside. Smith was looking for school clothes for her remaining two children, and documents, she added.
“She said to me she knew what she did with Joslin. And she mentioned there was someone who paid her to keep quiet. I asked who, and she never told me,” said Lombaard.
“The person who was wanting Joslin wanted her for her eyes and skin,” said Lombaard.
Last week, an evangelist based in Saldanha Bay testified that Smith told him in 2023 that she was going to sell her children for R20 000, “but if [the buyers] didn’t have the full amount, she would settle for R5 000”.
Lombaard told the court last week that the day before Joslin went missing, Smith confessed to selling her to a sangoma for R20 000 because she was struggling financially.
Going over the happenings on the day the child went missing, Lombaard testified that Smith told Appollis to have Joslin ready by 2pm as that was when she was going to be “picked up”.
Lombaard said she later saw Smith walking with Joslin to a white car — the same white car Smith had met the occupants of, the day before. Mother and child got into the car, and that was the last time she saw Joslin, said Lombaard.
Lombaard also told the court last week that Smith had offered her R1 000 in return for her silence, while offering R1 200 to accused number two in the matter, Steveno van Rhyn, for his silence.
The offers of cash for silence were made at the shack of Smith and Appollis, according to Lombaard, where all of the accused were present.
In the first week of the trial, two police officers told the court that the “theory” of Joslin being sold to sangomas had been investigated, and there was no evidence of such taking place.
The state alleges in its indictment that Smith “communicated during August 2023 her plan to have her children be taken away or sold”.
Smith’s sister, Mickeyla Davids, later testified that Smith told her Joshlin was still in Saldanha Bay seven days after her disappearance.
Daniels, a police constable attached to the Public Order Policing (POP) in Upington told the court Kelly was the eldest of five children.
The sisters did not have much contact with each other but had a sisterly bond when they did visit.
Daniels told the court she was not telephonically in contact with Kelly as she never had a stable phone or stable phone number.
When asked to explain Kelly’s demeanour, the sister said the first time they spoke Kelly was frantic and, in a state, but the following day she was happy and laughed a lot.
“She told me Gayton McKenzie bought clothes for her children. The more I asked about Joshlin the more she went on about Gayton buying clothes,” Daniels said.
She also explained she and Kelly had a fallout on a social media platform when McKenzie took Kelly to Spur.
“Gayton was interviewing Kelly on a live and I was watching. Kelly then said I said the child was sold for R20 000. That is when I commented and asked Gayton to add me to the live. I told him what Kelly said about her child still being in the plakkerskamp, someone wanting to sell her child, and that Saldanha is a hotspot. Kelly then attacked me, saying I must stop lying and I won’t get a promotion,” Daniels testified.