'Key state witness in Joshlin Smith trial is an opportunist', says defence

TimesLIVE

30-04-2025

Raquel 'Kelly' Smith's defence attorney on Wednesday accused the state's key witness in her kidnapping and human trafficking trial of being an opportunist who 'only looked out for her own interest'.
Attorney Rinesh Sivnarain told the Western Cape High Court sitting in Saldanha Bay Lourentia 'Renz' Lombaard — once good friends with his client — had used Smith to her advantage.
Lombaard, a former co-accused in the case, became a section 204 witness — a person implicated in a crime but allowed to testify truthfully against other accused in exchange for indemnity from prosecution.
Smith, her boyfriend Jacquin 'Boeta' Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn are accused of being behind the disappearance of six-year-old Joshlin Smith on February 19 2024. They pleaded not guilty.
The court previously heard that of the three accused and Lombaard, Smith was the only one who worked to provide for her family and feed her and Appollis' drug addiction.
Sivnarain said during Lombaard's cross-examination it emerged she often sustained her children by asking Smith for food.
Lombaard, he argued, was an opportunist and only decided to tell the truth seven months after being arrested because she was expecting to be given money by Smith which she had agreed to.
'When Lombaard made these confessions she expected to receive some benefit and therefore only looked out for her own interest,' said Sivnarian.
Lombaard had 'thrown Smith under the bus' to save herself and had many opportunities to come clean about the truth but continued to lie 'even when given her last opportunity'.
Prosecutor Zelda Swanepoel said during her closing arguments on Tuesday that despite discrepancies in Lombaard's evidence, she was a credible witness.
'The most reliable and most important corroboration for Lombaard's testimony is that of [another witness Nico] Coetzee.'
Swanepoel said Coetzee specifically referred to R20,000. Lombaard testified overhearing Smith tell Appollis, ' Hier is die geld wat ek by die sangoma gekry het [here is the money I got from the sangoma]'. Smith answered R20,000 when he asked how much.
The court heard the same amount was mentioned in Appollis' and Van Rhyn's statements.
However, Sivnarain argued that when Coetzee told his employers Tertia and Johan Kruger about the plan Smith had relayed to him, he only mentioned the plan, nothing about Joshlin being taken away.