Truth on trial: State witness Lourentia Lombaard has given different versions of what happened regarding the disappearance in February 2024 of Joslin Smith
Judge Nathan Erasmus this week put into words what scores of people watching the often harrowing testimony in the kidnapping and human trafficking trial of Joslin Smith’s mother and co-accused had been thinking: that the state’s key witness is “not sophisticated”.
It was an offhand remark from a seasoned judge who has thus far displayed a measured approach throughout proceedings.
But, in a trial that has captivated the South African public, his words landed with force.
Almost instantly, they became fodder for the thousands who tune in daily to YouTube streams of the case, seizing on the comment to cast further doubt on a witness already under scrutiny for the many omissions and outright lies in her statements about the 19 February 2024 disappearance of the child.
Erasmus made the comment while chiding advocate Fanie Harmse, who was cross-examining accused-turned-state-witness Lourentia Lombaard — referred to as Rens or Rensie throughout proceedings. .
Harmse’s questioning focused on what seemed like a minor detail: whether his client, Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis — partner of Joslin’s mother Kelly Smith — spoke to a police officer on the Saturday or the Sunday before the Monday Joslin went missing, about stolen chickens.
Said Erasmus: “Mr Harmse, with all due respect, why do you have to repeat everything the witness says? It becomes difficult for her to follow. We have covered this.
“This is not a sophisticated witness. Break it up into bite-sized chunks [instead of these] long-winded answers.”
Erasmus’s irritation with Harmse — it happens almost every time the advocate questions a witness — was not easily contained on this day.
“I have been cautioning you about being precise with the witness. Let us be precise,” he said, repeating similar words on more than one occasion.
On Thursday, he again cautioned Harmse to slow down in his questioning. “As I have said before, this is not a sophisticated witness….”
Lombaard is a 32-year-old drug addict with scant education. She is a mother to young children and lives in an informal settlement in the Saldanha Bay area with her partner, Ayanda, close to the shack of Smith and Appollis — or as Appollis has called it in an affidavit, “a little cage” that he built for him, Smith and her children.
Smith and Lombaard were friends at the time Joslin went missing, and also “smoked drugs” together, and with the other two accused.
According to Lombaard’s testimony, she knew Smith was going to sell the child to a sangoma for R20 000, and agreed to R1 000 in hush money to not speak of the matter.
Lombaard has cut a wholesome figure during the trial. She does not carry the telltale signs that can betray a history of heavy drug use. Her clothes are clean, look new, and fit well. Her pretty face is well made up, and her skin appears plump and smooth.
Her demeanour while speaking at some moments could, however, be described as eerily naïve. She smiles and appears to blush at inappropriate times.
When she told the court, seemingly emotionally, that she was sorry for what she had done, and that she had not managed to stop Smith — she tried, she really did, she told her it was wrong, and that she was sorry for her involvement — it rang hollow.
When she told the court that Joslin, with her blue-green eyes and fair skin, was wanted by a sangoma for her “eyes and skin”, she didn’t flinch.
Lombaard has also changed her story on several occasions, when talking to police formally or informally, or to local residents.
When first questioned by the police on 20 February 2024 as a witness to what took place the previous day, when the child went missing, she lied.
She told the court this week: “I didn’t tell them the whole truth because I was scared and nervous of the police. I was stressed [and high].”
She also gave a recorded “confession statement” in March 2024, in which she lied. She told the court this week that she “didn’t give the [interviewing officer] the whole truth”.
Charges were dropped against Lombaard later last year when she turned state witness.
She started making her statement as a state witness, in terms of section 204 of the Criminal Procedure Act, on 11 October 2024, and completed it on 16 October. In this statement, she insisted she was “telling the truth”.
Asked by the lead state prosecutor, Zelda Swanepoel, if what she testified about in court on Monday this week, and what she testified about last week, which was based on that statement, was the full truth, Lombaard responded: “That’s the whole, whole truth. There is nothing I am hiding.
“I just told myself I am going to talk the truth on that day. I decided I would tell the truth and not hide anything.”
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. This will need to be explained to the court and the voracious public.
Kelly smith, the mother of Joslin Smith.
On Wednesday, the pressure of cross-examination, which had just started, took its toll when Lombaard burst into tears, and had to be helped from the courtroom. She was taken to an ambulance, and Erasmus adjourned proceedings for the day.
On Thursday, Lombaard was back on the stand, with Harmse continuing cross examination, and again, Lombaard became weepy when inconsistencies were pointed out in her March 2024 confession statement, and the statement she made in October when she had become a state witness.
Erasmus again interrupted Harmse to ask questions on Thursday, about Lombaard’s drug use. These revealed that when she was arrested in March 2024, Lombaard had been using tik and or mandrax “all week”. By the time she made her Section 204 statement, she had been off drugs for seven months.
Erasmus said he had asked the questions about her drug use because he “noticed, when looking at the [recorded] confession statement, the changes in the witness”.
She had picked up weight and her complexion had improved, he said.
But Erasmus also asked Lombaard why she had not, when being led in her evidence in chief, admitted that she was high on drugs (or ostensibly confused by drug use just days earlier) when talking to police.
Lombaard responded that she had been “scared” and sometimes didn’t understand what Harmse or Erasmus were asking her.
Erasmus asked why she didn’t point that out, given he had constantly asked her if she understood what was being asked. Lombaard was unable to give a coherent statement.
The state alleges in its indictment that Smith “communicated during August 2023 her plan to have her children be taken away or sold”. “The plan was for this to happen in January or February 2024.”
Last week, an evangelist and part-time handyman based in Saldanha Bay testified that Smith told him in 2023 that she was going to sell the children for R20 000, “but if [the buyers] didn’t have the full amount, she would settle for R5 000”.
Appollis, Smith and mutual friend to both, Stefano van Rhyn, pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and human trafficking when proceedings started three weeks ago.
The trial is expected to sit until 28 March.