Joshlin Smith's mother ‘talked of plans for daughter to be taken months before disappearance’

Joshlin Smith‘s Grade 1 teacher Edna Maart testified on Wednesday, 12 March 2025. (Photo: Supplied)

12 Mar 2025

A witness at the Joshlin Smith trial backed the State’s assertion that the girl’s mother, Racquel Smith, also known as Kelly, had expressed a desire in August 2023 to have her children abducted or sold. This purported plan was to be implemented in January or February 2024.

A key element in the State’s case in the Joshlin Smith trial is that her mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith, had previously said she planned to sell her then six-year-old daughter. The claims had come from Smith’s friend and former accused Lorentia Lombaard, who is yet to take the stand.

On Wednesday, 12 March, Nico Steven Coetzee, a general worker and evangelist, testified in the Western Cape High Court sitting in Saldanha that in August 2023 Smith allegedly revealed to him her plan to abandon her children.

Coetzee told the court that he was taken aback when Smith allegedly told him about the plan months before Joshlin went missing on 19 February 2024.

The claims made by Coetzee further corroborate the version of Lombaard (who turned State witness) contained in court papers. Lombaard was initially accused number four, with Smith and her co-accused Jacquen Appollis, her boyfriend, and their friend Steveno van Rhyn, who face charges of kidnapping and human trafficking stemming from Joshlin’s disappearance.

appolis van rhyn smith From left: Accused Jacquen Appolis, Stevano van Rhyn and ‘Kelly’ Smith. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Jaco Marais)

Lombaard has already made a confession, which will be revealed once she steps into the witness box and shares claims on how they allegedly conspired and planned to sell Joshlin, including the amount that was allegedly paid to them from the person(s) who allegedly bought Joshlin.

The three accused, who have pleaded not guilty, have rejected the charges brought against them. It is the State’s contention that they “sold, delivered or exchanged” Joshlin.

Read more: Family history of abuse, addiction and neglect laid bare in Joshlin Smith trial

Joshlin went missing from the Middelpos informal settlement on 19 February 2024. Smith has claimed she went to work that day and left Joshlin with Appollis, and that Joshlin wasn’t there when she returned.

‘I was blown away’

According to Coetzee, he first met Smith in 2016 at a memorial ceremony. It was there that he found they were both Namakwalanders from Springbok. After church, she requested Coetzee to help her find a cleaning job in the area where she worked.

On a cool morning in August 2023, around 7.20am, Coetzee said he encountered Smith while she was jogging in Middelpos informal settlement. Coetzee said she had reminded him that she was still waiting for his response about a cleaning job.

According to Coetzee, the subject changed to Smith leaving her children with Appollis. Coetzee expressed his displeasure that her children had been left with Appollis, emphasising that male companions could on occasion harm children they were left alone with.

Coetzee then related to the court what Smith had said about her plans: “She (Smith) told me she is waiting for people who were supposed to come to her who were supposed to come earlier but disappointed her.

“If they come this time and they do not have the full amount of R20,000 then she will be satisfied with R5,000.”

He further testified that Smith had claimed that in January or February 2024, “You will see with your own eyes what will happen in Middelpos and Diazville.”

Smith allegedly said, “It will look like a movie scene, of cars and people that will search but they will find nothing because I will take the child very far.”

According to Coetzee, he first learnt of Joshlin’s disappearance on 20 February 2024, but did not realise at the time that she was Smith’s daughter.

The next time he saw Smith was on Sunday, 3 March 2024, at a church service for Joshlin in Diazville, Saldanha Bay. He spotted her from a distance and remembered what Smith had allegedly said to him in August 2023.

“I was blown away. I immediately left the church service and went home. I was too shocked to see, that’s my friend from over the years, that she was involved in this incident and that it was her daughter,” he told the court.

He shared this information with his employees, Tersia Kruger and Jacques van Zyl.

Later in 2024, while walking home, Coetzee came across Joshlin’s grandmother Rita Yon and told her about his August 2023 conversation with Smith. This led to police visiting Coetzee and questioning him.

More evidence

Joshlin Smith’s Grade 1 teacher Edna Maart testified on Wednesday, 12 March 2025. (Photo: Supplied)

Another shock on Wednesday happened before the tea break when Edna Maart, Joshlin’s Grade 1 teacher, testified that Smith purportedly told her that she had received a call from a man who claimed the six-year-old was in a container en route to West Africa.

Read more: Missing Joshlin Smith: Teacher reveals disturbing allegations of West African kidnapping call in court

Evidence in court on Tuesday by social worker Siliziwe Mbambo revealed the contents of a report from the Department of Social Development dating back to 2016, which indicated that Smith was a regular drug user, was abusive towards her family, and largely relied on others to put food on the family table.

The trial continues on Thursday, 13 March, when Smith’s counsel will cross-examine Coetzee. DM

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‘I was blown away’

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