Joshlin Smith: Kelly makes lonely court appearance

Joshlin Smith

Cape Town — Kelly Smith made another appearance in the Western Cape High Court on Friday afternoon related to the disappearance of her daughter, Joshlin Smith, who disappeared nearly one year ago.

However, she was alone in the dock as the court heard that Kelly’s co-accused, boyfriend Jacquin “Boeta” Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were absent from the pre-trial hearing due to an administrative error. The two men were not transferred from Malmesbury to Pollsmoor, The Citizen reported.

The trio is accused of human trafficking and kidnapping relating to Joshlin’s disappearance.

Judge Gayaat Da Silva-Salie said the case would be moved closer to the West Coast and Saldanha area where Joshlin went missing. Da Silva-Salie said the community interest was high and they should be allowed to attend the court proceedings.

The Western Cape’s National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Eric Ntabazalila said it was working to move the court proceedings to Saldanha and a demarcation will be held before the next pre-trial hearing on 28 February.

According to TimesLIVE, Da Silva-Salie said it must be assumed that Joshlin is still alive.

“We all sat in court this morning in pretrials all dealing with matters where injury to the victims has already happened. Here we are dealing with human trafficking and a kidnapping charge of a young child, a young little girl. In the absence of any further charges or amendments by the state we must presume that little Joshlin is still alive,” Da Silva said.

State prosecutor Zelda Swanepoel said the investigation was ongoing. The indictment revealed that Kelly said she planned to have her children taken away or sold from January to February 2024. Kelly and Joshlin had allegedly walked to a nearby vehicle where Kelly spoke to an unknown female, who handed something to her before the two returned home.

Later that day, Jacquin, Kelly, Steveno and Lourentia Lombaard (who was the 4th accused but had the charges dropped) discussed how the money would be divided. Kelly didn’t send Joshlin to school the following day but packed clothes in a bag before leaving for work.

According to the indictment, the mother and daughter got into a white vehicle that drove away. “Later the same night [Smith] started looking for Joshlin and reported her missing to the police. Despite ongoing investigations into the whereabouts of Joshlin, she has still not been found.”

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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