Star State witness Laurentia Lombaard breaks down under cross-examination in Joshlin Smith case

Accused-turned-State witness Laurentia Lombaard has testified that Joshlin Smith’s mother sold her daughter to a sangoma. Lombaard struggled on Wednesday as the defence sought to question her evidence.

Star State witness Laurentia Lombaard breaks down under cross-examination in Joshlin Smith case© Copyright (c) Daily Maverick , All Rights Reserved

The second day of Laurentia Lombaard’s cross-examination began smoothly. Under questioning from advocate Fanie Harmse, representing Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis in the Joshlin Smith case, she stuck to her claim that she witnessed violent altercations between Appollis and Joshlin’s mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith, better known as Kelly.

“Your honour, I have seen Kelly with my own eyes charging towards Boeta and threatening him with a knife,” she said under intense questioning.

  Raquel ‘Kelly’ Smith faces charges of human trafficking for exploitation and kidnapping after her daughter Joshlin went missing on 19 February 2024. (Photo: Supplied)

As Harmse turned to the events on the day before Joshlin’s disappearance and continued to poke holes in her testimony, Lombaard broke down.

The issue in question was whether Lombaard’s children accompanied her when she went to visit Smith twice, at 9am and 1pm, on 18 February 2024, the day before Joshlin went missing.

Lombaard is the State’s star witness. She has told the Western Cape High Court, sitting in the Saldanha Bay Multipurpose Centre, that she saw Smith taking Joshlin to meet a sangoma on 18 February 2024 and that Smith later confessed to having sold Joshlin for R20,000.

The three accused in the kidnapping and human trafficking case are, from left, Jacquen Appollis, Steveno van Rhyn and Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith.

Smith, Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn face charges of human trafficking for exploitation and kidnapping following Joshlin’s disappearance from the Middelpos informal settlement in Saldanha Bay. The State contends that they “sold, delivered or exchanged” Joshlin.

The three have pleaded not guilty.

Lombaard was initially in the dock with the trio, but turned State witness. She was allegedly part and parcel of an alleged plot to sell Joshlin and for her silence, was promised R1,000 which she never received.

‘A mistake’

Lombaard had stated that she went to Smith’s house twice on 18 February 2024. In her evidence-in-chief, she said that her children had been with her, yet she did not mention them in her statement to police.

When Judge Nathan Erasmus urged her to explain the contradictions, she glanced up to the roof of the centre, tears welling up in her eyes. She began to shiver and was ushered away by police officials. Court proceedings were briefly adjourned.

When they resumed, Harmse asked Lombaard where her children were when they visited Smith and she said they had been sitting on the ground.

Harmse further put it to Lombaard that in her statement, she did not indicate that her children were with her that morning, while in her evidence in chief, she claimed that they were.

She was perplexed and contradicted herself, saying her children were with her when she visited Smith at 9am, before later saying they weren’t.

On the contradiction, Lombaard told the court: “It was a mistake and the day I made this statement, my children were not on my mind.”

Judge Erasmus told Lombaard that the court had spent 44 minutes on the issue of her children, and she was now telling the court she had made a mistake.

“You said it was a mistake. Does it mean that the kids were with you in the morning? That is not the first time you made a mistake. In your evidence-in-chief last week you said the kids were with you in the morning.

“On Friday, 17 March 2024, you said when you went to Kelly that your children were with you. And now you say your kids were not with you,” Erasmus said.

“Do you have any explanations?”

At that point, Lombaard appeared to have a panic attack and paramedics were called.