Mother who sold daughter for £800 jailed in South Africa

One witness told a court Kelly Smith said she sold her daughter to a sangoma, a traditional healer, for 20,000 rand and that the girl was wanted for her "eyes and skin".

Thursday 29 May 2025 13:10, UK

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A mother has been sentenced to life in prison after she kidnapped and trafficked her own six-year-old daughter.

Kelly Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno Van Rhyn were convicted of the crimes in South Africa after Joshlin Smith disappeared from Saldanha, in Western Cape, last year.

The youngster has not been seen since and remains missing following a nationwide police hunt.

During the trial, one witness said Smith had told her she sold her daughter to a sangoma, a traditional healer, for 20,000 rand (£830).

She added the girl was wanted for her "eyes and skin".

The three defendants had previously pleaded not guilty.

Smith won sympathy across South Africa in the early days of Joshlin's disappearance and neighbours even helped the police in their search efforts.

The mother claimed she had left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she disappeared, before Smith too was arrested.

In court documents, the prosecution said Smith had been planning to sell not just Joshlin, but her other two children as well.

They also said Smith and Joshlin were seen getting into a white vehicle with a bag of clothes the day the girl was reported missing.

Announcing their sentences on Thursday, high court judge Nathan Erasmus said the fact Smith, Appollis and Van Rhyn were drug users was no excuse.

"There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose," the judge said.

Mother who sold daughter for £800 jailed in South Africa

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