Joshlin Smith trial: Kelly Smith lawyer says she will deny Lombaard’s testimony
Lombaard testified she witnessed Smith sell Joshlin to a sangoma for R20,000 before offering the accused money to keep quiet.
Kelly Smith, Joshlin Smith’s mother, at the Western Cape High Court sitting in the Saldanha Bay Multi-Purpose Centre on 17 March 2025. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/EWN
CAPE TOWN - In the Joshlin Smith trial, Kelly Smith's lawyer said the kidnapping and human trafficking accused mother will deny she sold her daughter to a sangoma.
Smith's lawyer told the Western Cape High Court sitting in Saldanha Bay that Smith will also deny the State's star witness, Lourentia Lombaard's testimony in relation to the charges she faces.
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Lombaard testified she witnessed Smith sell Joshlin to a sangoma for R20,000 before offering the accused money to keep quiet.
Smith's attorney, Rinesh Sivnarain, told the court Smith believes Lombaard testified against her and co-accused Jacquen Appollis and Stevano van Rhyn to protect herself and her boyfriend, Ayanda Letoni.
Sivnarain told Lombaard she was the last person seen with Joshlin on the day the child went missing.
He said when Smith went to look for Joshlin at Lombaard's shack after realising she was missing, both Joshlin and Lombaard were not there, and Letoni could not account for their whereabouts.
In her testimony, Lombaard said she took Joshlin to make the child a sandwich and later returned her to Appollis at Smith's shack.
Sivnarain told the court Smith believes Letoni fled to Eastern Cape a few days after Joshlin went missing because he was involved in the child's disappearance.