Kelly Smith takes notes during the kidnapping and human trafficking trial on Thursday.
Kelly Smith, the mother of still missing Joslin Smith, was brought to tears on Monday as her former employer, Carlyn Zeegers, described her as a “good mother” while testifying in the trial in which she faces kidnapping and human trafficking trial with two co-accused men.
Joslin, who would now be seven years old, has been missing since 19 February 2024.
Asked how she first got to know her former worker more than four years ago, Zeegers testified in Afrikaans that she was taken by the “plight” of Smith and her children.
“One day Kelly came to my house with her children. Circumstances made Kelly come to me. She had lots of troubles.
“She has very loveable children and she raised them well. I will say it again. I felt sorry for Kelly, and I saw what she was going through. I am also a mother. Even during difficult times, she was a good mother for her children,” said Zeegers.
Smith did domestic work for Zeegers and her daughter in their homes “because we felt sorry for her”.
She did not work every day, said Zeegers, but she would give Smith and the children food nevertheless.
Zeegers said she was aware that Smith was a drug user, but was concerned about the welfare of her children.
Smith and accused one Jacquen Appollis, who is also her partner, and accused two Steveno van Rhyn, pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and human trafficking when the trial started last week 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Last year, charges were withdrawn against the fourth accused, Lourentia Lombaard — referred to as Rens or Rensie throughout proceedings — who has turned state witness.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.
Prior to Zeegers’ testimony, the court heard from Natasha Andrews, who is a relative and had helped her with Joslin since the child was a baby.
Andrews said she had a good relationship with Smith, and described how Joslin would stay at her home on some weekends and during school holidays.
Joslin stayed with her during the December 2023 to January 2024 school holidays, said Andrews. During this time, Smith did not contact her to inquire about Joslin.
Andrews also said she had seen bruises on Smith, and it was because of this that she had wanted to adopt the child, but both parents would not allow it.
During cross-examination by Smith’s attorney, Rinesh Sivnarain, it was implied that Joslin was left with Andrews because it was “not safe” at the family home while Kelly was still with the child’s biological father, Jose Emke.
Emke has been in court following the proceedings.
Sivnarain asked Andrews if she would agree that once Kelly separated from Emke, there was no need for her to drop Joslin at Andrews’ home “to be kept safe”, to which Andrews agreed.
The court also earlier heard from Smith’s neighbour Namhla Tinzi about how she and Smith searched for Joslin on the night she went missing.
The first witness for the day was Detective Constable Refilwe Sekhope, a member of the family violence and child protection unit, who told the court that she had interviewed Lombard, who lives near Smith, about the day Joslin went missing.
Asked by the state prosecutor about Lombard’s demeanour, Sekhope said she was “jittery” and was “scratching her arms and head”.
“I had already learned that she was using drugs, so I asked her if she had used any drugs on that day, and her answer was ‘not yet’.”
Sekhope said it was Van Rhyn who brought up the “theory” that Joslin may have been “taken by sangomas”.
She said Van Rhyn made this statement — that Lombard had left the family home with Joslin and did not come back with her — while at his home and being questioned by local residents and members of the Patriotic Alliance.
Said Sekhope: “I don’t know if there was a question posed to him about what he thought happened to the child, but he said he suspects Lombard’s boyfriend, Ayanda, might have given the child to a sangoma.”
But, she added, Van Rhyn was sitting in Smith and Appollis’ shack when Lombard left, and could not see whether she left with Joslin and came back without her.
She said an official statement was not obtained from Van Rhyn that day because he was “a bit emotional and he would be smiling and laughing and then shouting and talking loud”.
His emotional state was “not consistent”, she said.
“Having learned he also uses drugs, I suspected that might have been the cause of his behaviour at that moment,” she said.
The theory of the sangoma kidnapping had been followed up, she said, and no evidence was found of it being true.
The trial continues on Tuesday.
