Saldanha Bay residents say they accept the confession of the fourth accused linked to the disappearance of Joshlin Smith, but are demanding to know where the six year old is.
This after Lourentia Lombaard, 32, made her first appearance in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning.
The accused, who is known to the girl’s mom Kelly Smith, was arrested and charged last Friday.
On Monday the small-built woman walked into the dock and showed no emotion.
She looked back at the public gallery and said: “I told the whole truth, I told them everything.”
The State revealed that Lombaard had made a confession to the police, but no further details were given.
Lombaard told the court that she intended to make use of Legal Aid services. She is the fifth person to be arrested in the case.
On 5 March, the police arrested Kelly, her berk Jacquen Appollis, Steveno van Rhyn and Phumza Sigaqa for human trafficking and kidnapping.
The State withdrew the charges against Sigaqa due to a lack of evidence.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, says: “Lourentia Lombaard appeared at the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court this morning. The 32-year-old woman is charged with trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation and kidnapping. Her case has been postponed until 25 March for bail information.”
Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC, Reagen Allen, has welcomed the arrest.
“This shows that the SAPS is diligently continuing with the investigation into young Joshlin Smith.
Allen says: “We’ve reached a critical stage in the investigation and it is important that speculation and hearsay come to an immediate end. Our sole focus should be to find Joshlin.”
Outside court, there were a few Diazville residents who said they had been expecting cops to arrest Lombaard.
Diego Dietdricks says: “I’m not shocked that Lourentia was charged, she had been the suspect since day one.
“We could hear all the stories that were going around in the community. We went to her house one time and we could see her body language was off, and she was stuttering.
“What we were told was that she asked Joshlin to go and check on her child at her place and then she followed Joshlin and that was the last time [Joshlin] was ever seen. Even though she denied it, we are happy now that she has confessed, it means that she was also part of this.”
Dietdricks said they were concerned that despite the arrest of a fifth suspect, there has been no breakthrough in finding Joshlin.
Dietdricks says: “Two women are behind bars, and that speaks volumes about the nature of their motherhood. I feel it could be the drugs that killed their emotions. The police keep arresting people but we have not found Joshlin, four weeks later. But we are hopeful that we will find her alive.”
The Grade 1 learner at Diazville Primary went missing a month ago from her Diazville home.
According to Kelly, she left her sick daughter in the care of Appollis, and when she returned home from work, Joshlin was gone.
Cops cracked the case wide open two weeks ago when one of the suspects allegedly confessed that Joshlin was kidnapped and sold for R20 000.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za