The judge’s verdict said Joshlin had been sold for slavery or practices similar to slavery, raising fears that she may have been sold for forced labour, domestic servitude or sexual abuse. There were also fears that she may have been murdered.
Judge Nathan Erasmus said at sentencing: “There is nothing I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose.”
Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn, a friend of the couple, were each given life sentences for human trafficking and 10 years each for kidnapping.
Neighbours at first rallied around Smith, whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith, when her daughter went missing outside Saldanha Bay, about 120 kilometres north of Cape Town.
Photos showing Joshlin’s green eyes, broad smile and brown pigtails flooded the internet.
Smith said she had left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she disappeared.
Her trial heard a series of claims, including one from a pastor who said that, in 2023, he had heard Smith talk about selling her children for 20,000 rand each.
Lourentia Lombaard, a friend and neighbour, testified that Smith had told her she sold Joshlin to a traditional healer, known in South Africa as a sangoma.
Lombaard told the court – convened in a sports centre in Saldanha Bay – that Smith had confessed: “I did something silly ... I sold my child to a sangoma”, adding that she had been driven by a desperate need for money.
Smith allegedly promised those who were aware of the plan some money in return for their silence.
Joshlin’s teacher told the court that, during a search for the child, Smith had said her daughter was already “on a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa”.
Smith and her accomplices refused to testify or call any witnesses for their defence. The public gallery erupted in applause as the sentences were read.
Police said after the verdict that they would continue to search for Joshlin.
Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, Western Cape provincial police commissioner, said: “Our thoughts remain with the family of Joshlin Smith. May they find some comfort in knowing that justice has prevailed.
“South African police service remains fully committed to exploring every possible lead in the pursuit of real closure in this tragic matter.”
Van der Watt said: “This was not a spontaneous act but a calculated crime.
“The evidence paints a clear picture of deliberate exploitation and co-ordinated effort by the accused, and a breach of societal and legal obligations to safeguard the most vulnerable among us.
“The victim in this case, 6-year-old Joshlin, very likely and plausibly suffered abuse.”
