A court has sentenced a sick mother who “sold her daughter for her eyes and skin” to life in jail. South African Racquel “Kelly” Smith was convicted of kidnapping and trafficking her six-year-old daughter and was sentenced to prison along with two accomplices.
According to testimony given during the trial, Joshlin Smith, the youngster, was never seen again after being sold to a traditional healer for her body parts. Jacquen Appollis, Smith’s lover, and their buddy Steveno van Rhyn were also imprisoned.
Smith reportedly mentioned selling her kids for 20,000 rand (£850) apiece, according to a witness. According to another witness, Smith intended to sell the daughter to a “sangoma,” a healer who desired the infant because of her pale skin and striking green eyes, reported The Sun.
In February 2024, Joshlin disappeared from outside her house in Saldanha Bay, close to Cape Town. Smith said that when she disappeared, she left her child with her lover. A minister intervened and offered a one-million-rand (£41,400) prize for her safe return after a desperate, widely reported search. The photograph of the toddler was aired throughout South Africa.
However, Joshlin was never located, and her mother became the target of suspicion. The trial result merely found that the defendants had sold Joshlin, without drawing any conclusions about what had actually happened to her.
At sentencing, Judge Nathan Erasmus stated that he “drew no distinction” between the roles that the three warped individuals played in the crime. He gave them each a life sentence on the human trafficking charge and a 10-year sentence for the kidnapping charge.
Joshlin Smith’s mother is an evil woman.. lady shows no remorse to what happened to her daughter 😳 rather go to jail with her secret. Bring back death sentence pic.twitter.com/4AIpQbgSnO
— YourBoyfriend (@YourBezzi) May 29, 2025
While learning their punishments outside the Saldanha community center, the wicked group displayed no emotion. The sentencing on Thursday comes after a trial that shook South Africa for six weeks. To allow community members to witness, it was hosted at a sports center in the family’s hometown.
Smith had received an outpouring of sympathy when Joshlin was originally reported missing. People in the neighborhood came together to support her and assisted the police in their search.
However, over 30 witnesses testified in court during the trial, providing a picture of the young girl’s turbulent past. Smith’s friend and neighbor, Lourentia Lombaard, provided the sobering details of Joshlin’s purported sale.
💔 JUSTICE FOR JOSHLIN SMITH 💔
6-year-old Joshlin Smith disappeared from Saldanha Bay, South Africa in February 2024. Over a year later, her body is still missing—but her mother, Kelly Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis, and their friend Steveno van Rhyn have been convicted… pic.twitter.com/4lKwyqbZt9
— Africa Global News (@Africaglobalnew) May 28, 2025
In 2023, Smith, a mother of three, mentioned selling her children for 20,000 rand (£850) each, but a local pastor testified that she would accept a lower amount of about £200.
According to Joshlin’s teacher’s testimony, Smith informed her that her daughter was already “on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa” as the search was underway. Smith was called a manipulator and a teller of “bald-faced lies” throughout the sentencing hearings.
It would not be a “stretch to conclude that [Kelly] Smith is the mastermind behind the trafficking of her own daughter,” according to a social worker assigned to write a report on the three traffickers. The fishing village of Saldanha Bay is located 85 miles north of Cape Town.
