Steveno van Rhyn’s lawyer, Nobahle Mkabayi, said to a witness in the Joshlin Smith kidnapping trial that it doesn’t make sense that he would have been paid after the sale of the girl.
Mkabayi asked Lourentia Lombaard if her client had seen anything the day before the six-year-old was reported missing on February 19, 2024.
The Middelpos girl was at her Saldanha Bay home when she vanished.
Her mother Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, Jacquen ‘Boeta’ Appollis, and Van Rhyn are facing kidnapping and human trafficking charges.
Former accused-turned-State witness Lombaard told the Western Cape High Court sitting in the White City Multipurpose Centre in Diazville that she followed Kelly, who was with her daughter, to a white VW Polo on that Sunday afternoon.
Mkabayi first asked the witness if she believed in God and that it was not permissible to lie to God before diving into the evidence-in-chief that Lombaard gave in court.
She put it to the witness that her client was not with her when she followed Kelly to the car and that he didn’t hear the conversation between Boeta and Kelly.
“Why would my client be paid when he didn’t witness anything? Why would he be paid more than you?
“It doesn’t make sense.”
Lombaard said she didn't know.
Mkabayi also questioned what the witness said about spying on Kelly walking with Joshlin to the car.
“If someone could stand at the entrance of this hall, you would not be able to see their face?
“If you can’t see at a shorter distance like this, you couldn't have noticed white dots on this woman (the sangoma) on the gravel near Ayanda’s carwash.”
Lombaard replied: “I wasn’t standing very far. I saw the dots.”
Mkabayi also told Lombaard that, from a distance of 91.8m, she could not have noticed the belt worn by the woman on her forehead.
She insisted that she saw it.
“Were you wearing binoculars?” Mkabayi asked.
Lombaard said: “No, my Lord.”
Community members in the public gallery murmured as Mkabayi grilled Lombaard.
The trial continues