The mother of missing 6-year-old Joslin Smith, Kelly Smith, appears in court in Vredenburg, South Africa. [Picture: Associated Press]
What started as a wave of sympathy for a mother whose child had gone missing quickly turned into fury as a plot twist saw her placed in the dock.
The community of Middelpos, Saldanha Bay, was outraged when Kelly (Racquel Chantel) Smith and her boyfriend Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis appeared in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
The charge sheet accused them and two others of human trafficking for purposes of exploitation and kidnapping. This was linked to the disappearance of her daughter Joslin Smith. The six-year old went missing nearly three weeks ago.
Rumours were rife after a report that she, her boyfriend and Steveno van Rhyn sold the girl for R20 000 to Phumza Sigaqa. Community members were shell-shocked when they saw her in the dock.
“My word! And here I still had a little bit of hope that she had nothing to do with this case because it’s her child. I believed the rumours of her [involvement] were just nonsense talk. I am so shocked,” said Charmaine Kleinsmith, quoted by News24.
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‘One step closer’
Speaking to reporters outside the court on Thursday, Western Cape community safety MEC, Ragan Allan, said they were “one step closer to ultimately finding Joslin, or what actually happened to her”.
“We are still keeping hope alive, knowing that we are wanting to ultimately find Joslin unharmed,” he said. But, he urged zealous community members not to get in the way of ongoing investigations.
“We would never want to politicise this particular matter – it’s a six-year-old. For that particular reason, we are asking members of the community, our stakeholders, to ultimately allow the South African Police Service and various stakeholders, including the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] to conduct their work.”
The four accused will return to the dock next Wednesday.
