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Pretrial hearings — Joshlin Smith, Nafiz Modack and Donkie Booysen cases share Western Cape courtroom

Pretrial hearings — Joshlin Smith, Nafiz Modack and Donkie Booysen cases share Western Cape courtroom
Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen leaves the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on 22 December 2020. (Photo: Adrian de Kock)
Vincent Cruywagen
By Vincent Cruywagen
2 Feb 2025
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Another hurdle before a trial date can be set for Joshlin Smith, who vanished from Saldanha on 19 February 2024, is the demarcation issue in Vredenburg to determine whether the venue there is appropriate for trial purposes, which will then have to be proclaimed by the Minister of Justice and Chief Justice Mandisa Maya.

On Friday, 31 January 2025, during the pretrial proceedings in Court 1 at Western Cape High Court, the moment was too much for one of the three accused, Joshlin’s mother, Racquel Chantel Smith, also known as Kelly, as she sat alone in the dock.

joshlin smith Kelly Smith and her co-accused are facing charges of kidnapping and human trafficking stemming from the disappearance of Joshlin, a Grade 1 learner from Diazville Primary who went missing from the Middelpos informal settlement on 19 February 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Theo Jeptha)



Her two co-accused, Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn, were not picked up at Malmesbury Correctional Centre due to an administrative error. Kelly looked up to the gallery to check whether there were any familiar faces present. She wailed as she realised she was alone.

The matter was heard before Judge Gayaat Salie da Silva.

The judge reiterated that in the interests of the community and that so many were unable to afford the journey to the proceedings, the trial would be heard in Circuit Court in Vredenburg.

The judge said that appointed judge for the trial Nathan Erasmus would attend to the demarcation aspect and inspect the Vredenburg court to determine whether the venue was appropriate. This would then need to be proclaimed by the minister of justice and Chief Justice Mandisa Maya.

Kelly and her co-accused are facing charges of kidnapping and human trafficking stemming from the disappearance of Joshlin, a Grade 1 learner from Diazville Primary who went missing from the Middelpos informal settlement on 19 February 2024.

Read more: Police scale down search for six-year-old Joslin Smith after a week with no leads

On the day of Joshlin’s disappearance, her mother claimed that she left her daughter with her boyfriend at around 8am that day and went to work. When she returned at 5pm, Joshlin was gone. However, in the Vredenburg Magistrates’ Court on Monday, 21 October 2024, prosecutor Aradhana Heeramun challenged that version. 

At that juncture, Heeramun alleged that Joshlin had allegedly been “sold, delivered or exchanged”, and that Kelly allegedly orchestrated the crime and then lied about her disappearance. The State did not provide any details on who Kelly and her co-accused might have given Joshlin to.

These claims against Kelly, Appollis and Van Rhyn surfaced after the fourth accused in the matter, Lorentia Lombaard, turned State witness. As a result, charges were dropped against Lombaard.

Read more: State details how Joshlin Smith’s mother orchestrated human trafficking sale as family marks her seventh birthday

‘We must presume that little Joshlin is alive’


Few people from Vredenburg attended the pretrial proceedings on Friday. It is suspected that people stayed at home because they couldn’t afford the costly travel to and from the Western Cape High Court.

Judge Salie da Silva emphasised: “I’m mindful of this matter, the pretrials all dealt with matters where the injury to the victims [had] already happened. Here we are dealing with human trafficking and kidnapping charges of a young little girl. In the absence of any charges or amendments by the State, we must presume that Little Joshlin is still alive.”

The judge also asked for an update on the investigation and search, to which the prosecution’s Zelda Swanepoel responded: “My Lady, the investigation is still ongoing and very much alive; all information, regardless of nature, is followed up on; even walks on the beach are still taken when new information is received.”

On Wednesday, 29 January 2025, the investigating team returned to Vredenburg to follow up on new leads which provided no results.

“On 28 February, when the pretrial proceeds and if all arrangements are adequately prepared, then I will declare it trial-ready, then the trial will proceed and a trial date set,” Judge Salie da Silva said.

Trial ‘should be held in Vredenburg’


Greg Clifton of registered nonprofit organization Pay it Forward, which handled the search for Joshlin two days after her disappearance in February 2024, told the media that it was important that the trial took place in the area where Joshlin disappeared.

“Yes, we absolutely believe the matter should be heard in Vredenburg. That is where the incident occurred and where the community has done so much in terms of searching. Not all those people can be here (Western Cape High Court), for postponements and a long trial,” Clifton said.

Modack and Booysen pretrial hearings


Joshlin’s mother Kelly appeared in the same courtroom as alleged underworld figure Nazif Modack and alleged Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome Booysen for pretrial hearings on Friday.

modack Nafiz Modack appears at the Western Cape High Court on 7 May 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Theo Jeptha)



The pretrial hearing for Modack’s SARS case relates to a tax fraud matter involving more than R46-million – and his mother is among the accused as the alleged criminal enterprise’s manager.

Read more: Inside Nafiz Modack’s multimillion-rand VAT fraud case – a family affair with his mother and brother

The accused in the case are Modack, his mother Ruwaida Modack and brother Yaseen Modack, as well as Faried van der Schyff, Bashier Syce, Nadia Sait, Layla Bedderson, Dominique McLachlan and Kulsum van der Schyff.

The R46-million SARS fraud and corruption case hinges on the State’s allegations that Modack and others claimed VAT refunds that were not owed to them.

The case came about when members of the SARS criminal investigation unit were tipped off that 25 corporate organisations were registered as VAT sellers and had e-filed claims for large VAT refunds.

Advocate Bash Sibda, who represents Modack in the trial for the 2020 murder of the Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit head, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, also represents him in the SARS case.

Judge Salie da Silva informed Modack and his counsel that a provisional trial date had been set for 28 July 2025. But Sibda objected, telling the court that he couldn’t predict whether the criminal trial involving the murder of Kinnear, before Judge Robert Henney, would be completed by then.

Modack and debt collector Zane Kilian are the two main accused in Kinnear’s assassination on 18 September 2020. The State contends that they also conspired in a failed attempt to murder lawyer William Booth on 9 April 2020.

When Judge Salie da Silva noted that the pretrial hearing had been rescheduled for 28 February 2025, Modack told the judge that he would be in court on that date for another matter.

On that day, Modack’s pretrial hearing on gun-related charges will be heard in the Johannesburg Division of the Gauteng High Court.

However, the judge told Modack that he had engaged Sibda as his attorney and that Modack should have addressed the court through his counsel.

In the case of Sexy Boys gang boss Jerome Booysen, he, with five co-accused Kenneth Hansen, Kristo Marlens, Clinton Langeveld, Jennen Jansen and Herbert Zoutman, are charged with running a Mandrax syndicate in the Bellville area between February 2013 and November 2017.  They face more than 90 charges, including drug trafficking.

booysen Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen leaves the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court on 22 December 2020. (Photo: Adrian de Kock)



Read more: “Sexy Boys drug syndicate trial delayed due to Wainstein murder case crossover”

During the pretrial procedures, the court stated that the trial date had been set for the end of May. However, Booysen’s counsel, Nthabiseng Mokoena, told the court that her client was involved in the trial for the murder of “Steroid King” Brian Wainstein, which is being heard in the Western Cape High Court before Judge Vincent Saldanha.

Main accused in the Wainstein murder Mark Lifman was gunned down in the Garden Route Mall in George on 3 November 2024.

The accused in the Wainstein murder trial are Booysen, Andre Naude, Sam Farquharson, Egan Morgan, alleged corrupt police detective Wayne  Henderson, Ricardo Maarman, Typhenne Jantjies, Bevan Ezaus, Bradley de Bula, Kashief Hanslo, Rowendal Stevens, Ismail Cupido and a Russian, Igor Russol.

They face a raft of charges including murder, attempted murder, intimidation, gang activities, the illegal possession of ammunition and firearms, contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, contributing towards gang activity and aiding and abetting criminal activities.

“There is no certainty when this trial will be completed. It is impossible for Booysen to [appear before] two cases in this division, hence we will bring an application to have the [drug trafficking] matter removed [from] the roll,”  Mokoena said.

But Judge Salie da Silva told Mokoena that the matter could not be removed from the roll. The pretrial drug trafficking matter involving Booysen and his co-accused was postponed to 30 May. DM

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