Kelly Smith takes notes during the kidnapping and human trafficking trial on Thursday.
Community members of Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay hurled insults at Kelly Smith, the mother of Joslin Smith, when she returned to her shack on Thursday, with the other two accused, for an in-loco inspection during the kidnapping and trafficking trial of the seven-year-old.
One particularly angry woman, walking past the washing line outside her own shack, speaking in Afrikaans, yelled: “Tell the police where your child is, you vuilgat, you mess, you pig.
“You fucking dog!”
Near the end of the visit, as Smith was being returned to a police van, dozens of residents chanted “We want Joslin! We want Joslin!”
The child has been missing since 19 February 2024.
Prior to the inspection, the court heard testimony from Saldanha Bay station commander Colonel Lyndon Sebola, who was responsible for organising the extensive search for Joslin.
At the start of proceedings, Sebola told the court he did not want his face to be broadcast by the media. He had said the same thing during his brief testimony on Wednesday. Sebola said it would be “detrimental” to himself and his family if his face was shown.
But Judge Nathan Erasmus said images of the 20-year police veteran were already “out there in the public domain”, as was a video of him with the national police commissioner during a visit to one of the scenes of the alleged crime.
“Having considered the application that was brought yesterday, and having made a provisional order at the time, I have reconsidered that order and I am of the view that it is in the public interest, and in the interest of justice, that there should not be any restriction. So, I am going to allow that your image be shown,” said Erasmus.
In the testimony that followed, Sebola painted a picture of Smith as indifferent to the disappearance of Joslin, something the first two police witnesses in the trial, Constable Yanga Gongotha and officer Zuko Kobese, who first attended to the call about the girl being missing, had also said in their testimonies.
Sebola said that when Smith walked into the community service centre, she saw some police officers that she knew and told them: “My child Joslin has made me famous.”
“That made me worried, taking it as a parent,” said Sebola.
He said that, on 1 March 2024, he had to make accommodation arrangements for Smith, in order for her to engage with the minister of police, who would be visiting the area the following day.
Sebola had to find accommodation for Smith because “there was an indication that the community was angry about [Smith] and they could do harm to [her]”.
Accommodation was arranged in Vredenburg, he said, but Smith “didn’t like that accommodation because it would only accommodate her and not the boyfriend, because it was only for females”.
“She insisted she could not go to that place without [Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis, accused number one and Smith’s partner].
“We then found accommodation that was supplied by a member of the community in Diazville.”
He said police officers were placed at the accommodation “just in case information filters through [to the community] that they are at that address”.
Smith’s two other minor children were not with her at the time, Sebola said, and she did not mention them. (Smith later told the court the two were safe with relatives, which is why she did not feel the need to mention them.)
Sebola also detailed the extensive search for Joslin, which included Public Order Police, officers from various stations, a helicopter, drones, Port of Entry police, and local law-enforcement officers.
Over 100 community members and six community leaders also took part over several days, he said.
Appollis, Steveno van Rhyn and Smith pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and human trafficking when the trial started on Monday.
Last year, charges were withdrawn against the fourth accused, Lourentia Lombaard — referred to as Rens or Rensie throughout proceedings — who has turned state witness.
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.”
The matter is being heard by the Western Cape high court sitting in the multi-purpose centre in Saldanha Bay, offering an opportunity for local residents to attend proceedings.
Thus far, the court has heard that, on the day the girl disappeared, all three accused (Van Rhyn is a friend of both) were “smoking drugs” alone or with each other. According to Appollis, the drug of choice was tik.
Allegations were also made by Appollis and Van Rhyn that they were beaten and “tortured” by police while being questioned about the child’s whereabouts.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the accused read their plea explanations into the court record, in which the allegations of police brutality were detailed.
In those agreements, their claims of torture, read by advocate Fanie Harmse for Appollis and attorney Nobahle Mkabayi for van Rhyn, are made in exactly the same words.
Appollis said he was taken to the Sea Border offices in the early hours of 4 March, having been questioned and “abused” on several occasions prior to this, at the same venue.
“I was handcuffed and hanging in mid-air. A plastic bag was placed over my head while I was hit on my head, legs, feet and hands. I could not breathe.
“They told me, if I want to talk, I should shake my head. This carried on while I could not breathe. The pain was so severe that I felt that I was going to die. This was repeated several times.
“To get them to stop torturing me, I shook my head and they removed the plastic bag and I said that I would talk, even though I had already told everyone what I already knew.
“I realised that, if I do not tell them what they want to hear, they will kill me.”
Van Rhyn told the court that after an initial assault in a secluded area near the beach, he was also taken to the Sea Border offices on the night of 4 March 2024.
Detailing the “torture” that took place, he said: “I was hanging in mid-air, a plastic bag was placed over my head, while I was hit on my head, legs, feet and hands. I could not breathe. They told me if I want to talk, I must shake my head. The pain was so severe I felt that I was going to die. [The assault] was repeated several times.”
“To stop them from torturing me, I shook my head, and they removed the plastic bag. I said I was ready to talk [and I knew I had to tell them what they wanted to hear].”
Both men said they were later taken to the Vredenburg Provincial Hospital for a medical examination, where they were warned not to tell the doctors that the injuries they had sustained resulted from assault and torture.
Should they alert the doctors, according to both, police said they would be “killed”.
In the State’s indictment, it describes Smith on the day of Joslin’s disappearance as having packed a bag for the child, led her away on foot from the family’s shack and “getting into a white motor vehicle that drove away”.
“Later the same night, [Smith] started looking for Joslin and reported her missing to the police.”
Appollis, Van Rhyn and Smith have been charged under the doctrine of common purpose.