On Thursday, a South African mother along with two accomplices received life sentences for trafficking her then-6-year-old daughter, a case that has captured national attention since the child went missing last year.
Kelly Smith, her partner Jacquen Appollis, and their associate Steveno Van Rhyn were found guilty of kidnapping and trafficking the girl, Joshlin Smith, after she vanished from a small town in the Western Cape.
In a trial that stunned the nation, a witness testified that Kelly Smith confided in her that she had sold her daughter to a sangoma, or traditional healer, for 20,000 rand ($1,100), claiming the girl was sought after for her “eyes and skin”.
Despite a thorough police search, Joshlin Smith has yet to be located.
While announcing their sentences on Thursday, high court judge Nathan Erasmus remarked that the fact that Kelly Smith, Appollis, and Van Rhyn were drug users did not serve as a valid justification.
“There is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,” Erasmus stated.
For their kidnapping conviction, the three received 10-year prison sentences.
