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Kelly Smith’s mother — my daughter said she’ll ‘speak at sentencing proceedings’

Kelly Smith’s mother — my daughter said she’ll ‘speak at sentencing proceedings’
An emotional Amanda Daniels-Smith at court in Saldaha on Friday, 2 May 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)
Vincent Cruywagen
By Vincent Cruywagen
5 May 2025
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Amanda Daniels-Smith, the mother of convicted kidnapper and child trafficker Racquel Smith, also known as Kelly, says she has forgiven her child, but still wants to know what happened to Joshlin Smith.

Following Racquel “Kelly” Smith’s conviction for the kidnapping and human trafficking of her daughter Joshlin, Amanda Daniels-Smith, Kelly’s mother, visited her in the improvised holding cells at the Saldanha Bay Multipurpose Centre.

This photo of Joshlin Smith leaves her grandmother, Amanda Daniels-Smith, in tears. (Photo: Supplied)



“I asked Kelly if she could please talk and tell me where Joshlin was. She cried and said, ‘Mommy, I don’t know where Joshlin is and I’m not involved.’

“Kelly told me she was going to speak during the sentencing process, but she didn’t say what she was going to say.”

On Sunday, 4 May 2025, Daniels-Smith, 54, spoke to Daily Maverick about her grief over the abduction of Joshlin, who was six years old when she went missing in February 2024 and is yet to be found.

Daniels-Smith attended the court hearing for the first time on Friday, 2 May 2025, when Kelly, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were convicted of trafficking in persons and kidnapping in connection with Joshlin’s disappearance on Monday, 19 February 2024. 

Though the judgment ended the eight-week trial that began on Monday, 3 March 2025, it provided little comfort to Daniels-Smith or Rita Yon, whose son, Jose Emke, is Joshlin’s biological father, because there is no closure while Joshlin remains missing.

amanda daniels smith Kelly Smith was Amanda Daniels-Smith’s (above) first child. Kelly was adopted by her grandparents when she was just days old. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)



Recounting her reaction after judgment was handed down, Daniels-Smith said, “I was happy with the verdict, but it didn’t satisfy me. I’m so angry and I don’t want to see [Kelly] if she knows where my [grand]child is. I just want my grandchild back. If I can get an idea where Joshlin is, then I can get closure.”

Kelly, Appollis and Van Rhyn face a minimum sentence of life imprisonment for trafficking in persons. The prosecution and defence counsel for the three accused will appear before Judge Nathan Erasmus in the Western Cape High Court on Friday, 9 May 2025, to discuss whether the accused will present witnesses to mitigate the sentence and the State’s arguments in aggravation of sentence.

Read more: Joshlin Smith case — Why the court found the accused guilty

The trio chose to remain silent during the court proceedings, deciding to neither take the stand nor call any witnesses in their defence.

‘Kelly was a lovely child’


Kelly was born at Aggeneys Hospital in the Northern Cape on 1 May 1990. She was Daniels-Smith’s first child. She was adopted by her grandparents when she was just days old.

Speaking to Daniels-Smith, it was evident that giving up Kelly for adoption had not been an easy task, and that she had tried to do what was best for her child.

“I was pregnant when I was 19 years old, and at the age of 20, I gave birth to Kelly. I was still young and had to go and work.

“I left her with my parents, Ragel and the late Dantjie Smith, who adopted her. I did this because I knew they would give her a good life. My mother was a teacher and my father a craftsman. Kelly was a lovely child.”

kelly childhood Amanda Daniels-Smith says her parents provided Kelly Smith with the finest childhood possible. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)



When asked how Kelly might have felt about being given up for adoption at a young age and whether she might still resent her mother, Daniels-Smith said, “How could she hate me if I gave her up for adoption? This was the best decision I could have made. Following her birth, I travelled to Cape Town to hunt for a job. I could not take the small child with me. I [didn’t] know anyone, so who should I leave with her [while I’m working], my parents?”

She said her parents raised a number of their grandchildren. They had made good decisions and achieved success.

“I have a stepbrother, Jerome Smith, whom my parents also adopted and who has soared in life. Kelly is not the first kid to be adopted and raised by a grandmother and grandfather,” she said.

Read more: The Kelly Smith story – from promising student to charged with selling her daughter

Daniels-Smith said her parents provided Kelly with the finest childhood possible, enrolling her in what she termed a white school, Pofadder High School, in Pofadder.

When Kelly moved with her grandparents from the Northern Cape to Saldanha, Western Cape, in 2003, she thrived in school, according to her mother, and passed matric with good marks.

This was also confirmed by Joshlin Smith’s aunt, who indicated that Kelly was an excellent student who obtained high grades in all subjects, including physical science and mathematics.

“We thought that Kelly would become an artist, because she draws amazingly well, and that was our hope,” Daniels-Smith told Daily Maverick.

‘I forgive her’ 


amanda daniels-smith An emotional Amanda Daniels-Smith at court in Saldaha on Friday, 2 May 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Brenton Geach)



Daniels-Smith cannot say exactly when her daughter began using drugs. However, according to the testimony of Siliziwe Mbambo, a Saldanha Bay social worker, Kelly was a regular drug user who was abusive to her family as early as 2016.

According to Daniels-Smith, her husband, Peppie, got a job for Kelly at the Black Mountain Mine (BMM) in Aggeneys around 2019. However, the day Kelly was supposed to start working, she took a taxi back to Saldanha Bay.

After the birth of Kelly’s third child, who is now five, Daniels-Smith said, “My daughter’s life suddenly turned completely backwards. During the holidays, when I visited Saldanha Bay, I picked up her children, took them out, and bought them clothes and gifts, just like a grandmother.

However, she heard Kelly’s drug abuse had worsened and that she had been threatening her grandmother, which the social worker Mbambo also testified to. 

Speaking about how the family tried to intervene, Daniels-Smith said Kelly went to rehab twice for treatment. She told her that when she was discharged, she should go to Aggeneys, where she could grow stronger, get a job and provide for her three children. 

Asked about what she now thought of Kelly, Daniels-Smith said, “I forgive her, but I cannot forget what she did. Kelly is still my child, and I can’t hate her because how can I hate someone? I also expect the Lord to forgive me for things I’ve done wrong.”

Daniels-Smith will return to court next week to hear what her daughter says on the stand during the sentencing procedures, particularly whether she will say anything about what happened to Joshlin. DM

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