Joshlin went missing from her home in the Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay on 19 February last year.
(Executive mayor Andrè Truter/Facebook)
The three people charged with kidnapping and trafficking after six-year-old Joshlin Smith disappeared more than a year ago pleaded not guilty on Monday, the first day of the trial in the Western Cape high court, sitting in a multi-purpose centre in Saldanha Bay.
Joshlin’s mother, Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn are accused of organising the child’s kidnapping in February 2024.
If they are found guilty, “the discretionary minimum sentence of life imprisonment will apply”, Judge Nathan Erasmus told the trio.
Joshlin went missing from her home in the Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay on 19 February last year. At the time of her daughter’s disappearance, Smith told the police that she could not find the child, who had been in the care of Appollis, when she returned from work.
Constable Yanga Gongotha, who works at the Rural Flying Squad, took to the stand to say that on the night of Joshlin’s disappearance, he received a complaint that a child had gone missing in Middelpos.
He met Smith on his way there, and she informed him that her child had gone missing.
Gongotha said she didn’t show any emotion and, for someone who couldn’t find her child, she did not appear to be worried.
“In some instances, when a complainant would come and ask us and tell us about a child who got lost, the person would come to us hurriedly and want us to quickly come to their aid,” Gongotha said.
“The most important thing for her was for us to look for the person who was looking after the child, not the child. The boyfriend, not the child.”
He said Smith was questioning the people who might have seen Joshlin that day, including a neighbour and an aunt in Diazville, but they couldn’t provide any information.
Gongotha they also went searching for Appollis, who was in a shack, and Gongotha noted that Smith was at ease when she met him, but did not immediately ask for Joshlin’s whereabouts.
Last year, the state withdrew charges against a fourth accused, Lourentia Lombaard. It was understood at the time that Lombaard had turned state witness.
The trial is set to run until 28 March.