Joslin Smith: Star witness unravels

State witness Lourentia Lombaard irks the judge with her 'assumptions', while Kelly Smith is again portrayed as a callous mother

- Des Erasmus

The fourth week of the trial of those accused of kidnapping and trafficking Joslin Smith has again laid bare the contradictions and confusion engulfing the state's key witness and the very foundations of the case.

On the stand again this week was Lourentia "Rens" Lombaard, the state's star witness and a former co-accused, whose testimony has veered between assumptions and factual uncertainty.

For the second time during cross-examination, the mother of four collapsed in a dizzy spell and had to be assisted from the courtroom - prompting Judge Nathan Erasmus to pointedly observe that this now seemed to happen "when it came to crunch time".

The high-stakes trial, being heard in the Western Cape high court sitting in Saldanha Bay, centres on Jacquen "Boeta" Appollis, Steveno van Rhyn, and Kelly Smith - Joslin's mother all of whom face charges related to the child's disappearance. All three have pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and human trafficking.

Joslin vanished on 19 February 2024, the day after an alleged R20 000 cash exchange between her mother and a female sangoma. She has not been seen since.

But in court, the pursuit of truth has often felt like grasping at smoke.

On Wednesday, the cross-examination of Lombaard reached a critical point. The former drug user who admitted to frequently smoking tik and mandrax with the accused conceded under pressure that her claim of witnessing the cash exchange was, in fact, an assumption.

Standing 80 metres away at the time, Lombaard first testified she had seen money change hands. But under questioning by defence attorney Rinesh Sivnarain, acting for Smith, she admitted she did not see cash.

"As I saw the lady give Kelly something, my own assumption was it was money," she told the court.

"Did you just make an assumption?" Erasmus interjected.

"I made an assumption," she confirmed.

"What did you see?" the judge pressed.