The Joshlin Smith trial resumed on Monday with a full day of intense cross-examination of State witness Lourentia Lombaard, whose testimony continued to draw both scrutiny and sympathy.
Joshlin Smith trial today: Here’s a breakdown of what happened
Now in her fifth day on the stand, Lombaard faced mounting pressure from the legal representatives of both Accused 1, Jacquen Appollis, and Accused 2, Steveno van Rhyn, as the court revisited her claims about the events of Sunday, 18 February and Monday, 19 February 2024.
Advocate Fannie Harmse, appearing for Appollis, picked up where he left off last week, attempting to dismantle Lombaard’s version of the timeline on the day Joshlin disappeared.
Harmse pressed her on the inconsistencies between her original March 2024 confession—made two days after her arrest—and the Section 204 statement she gave in October, in which she implicated herself and others in the alleged plan to sell Joshlin to a sangoma for R20,000.
The court, however, showed growing fatigue over the constant repetition of earlier testimony, with Judge Nathan Erasmus intervening multiple times to keep the questioning focused.
He ruled that certain matters, including the white Polo sightings and the argument between Kelly and Jacquen, had already been ventilated and did not require further probing unless new facts emerged.
Harmse’s strategy seemed to expose more about the fragmented state of Lombaard’s memory than it did to establish Jacquen’s alibi.
He introduced a statement from a child witness, Athandiwe Nqobi, who said she saw Joshlin playing outside at around the time Lombaard claimed the child was taken.
However, the time mentioned was found to be speculative and was struck from the record.
Lombaard remained firm on her version that she witnessed Kelly returning at 14:00 to collect Joshlin and that a conversation about the money split among the accused did happen.
Harmse ultimately rested without conclusively undermining the core of her evidence regarding Jacquen’s alleged involvement.
The courtroom then shifted focus as Advocate Nobahle Mkabayi took over for Accused 2, Steveno van Rhyn.
Her approach began with probing Lombaard’s background—her drug history, her relationship with Ayanda, and her knowledge of Steveno.
While this line of questioning was less confrontational at first, it soon turned sharply, especially when Mkabayi pressed Lombaard on why she had initially said she met Steveno in July 2023, later changing that to February.
An emotional high point came when Lombaard broke down while recounting an alleged abduction she and Ayanda experienced at the hands of a vigilante group.
She described being taken to Langebaan, assaulted, and threatened with death if she did not reveal what happened to Joshlin. Court was adjourned briefly to allow her to recover.
When proceedings resumed, Mkabayi returned to the issue of timeline inconsistencies, focusing on Sunday, 18 February 2024.
She questioned Lombaard’s recollection of the order of events—whether she went to Kelly’s to ask for food or if she had already received money from Ayanda’s associate.
Lombaard insisted she asked Kelly for food in the morning and received money later in the day. Mkabayi accused her of lying, but Lombaard held her ground.
By the end of the session, Mkabayi requested an adjournment, informing the court that she would resume questioning on Tuesday with “instructions”—the portion of cross-examination where a witness is presented with the accused’s version of events.