{"id":27354,"date":"2024-03-14T05:50:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T09:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=27354"},"modified":"2024-03-14T05:50:34","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T09:50:34","slug":"joslin-smith-disappearance-south-african-mother-accused-of-kidnapping-drops-bail-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/03\/14\/joslin-smith-disappearance-south-african-mother-accused-of-kidnapping-drops-bail-plea\/","title":{"rendered":"Joslin Smith disappearance: South African mother accused of kidnapping drops bail plea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

The mother of a missing six-year-old girl, who has been charged with trafficking and kidnapping in South Africa, has abandoned her bail request.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Kelly Smith, boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and another suspect have all withdrawn their efforts to be freed on bail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Angry crowds gathered outside the court, threatening the trio with violence if they were released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The case has gripped South Africa since Joslin disappeared outside her home in Saldanha Bay near Cape Town last month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

During Wednesday’s court appearance, Phumza Sigaqa, one of the four originally accused of being involved in the disappearance of Joslin, had her charges dropped because of a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Local media have called Ms Sigaga a traditional healer or “sangoma”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

In a widely condemned practice, some traditional healers use body parts to make potions, claiming they can cure people of illnesses or improve their fortunes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Prior to her charges being dropped, prosecutors alleged that Ms Smith had instructed Mr Appollis and another of the accused, Stefano van Rhyn, to sell Joslin to a traditional healer for 20,000 rand ($1,000; \u00a3835),\u00a0according to the privately owned Citizen newspaper.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

But prosecutors say there is no evidence at this stage that she is involved with the disappearance of the child.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Many protesters outside the courtroom welcomed this as they felt she had been used as a scapegoat, the AFP news agency reports. Some shouted “free Phumza!” and held placards with a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The atmosphere outside the court was tense as heavily armed police had to stop the crowd from entering Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court with barred wires and teargas, AFP reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Residents attempted throwing stones at the police, according to the News24 website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The disappearance of Joslin has left people thirsty for justice and answers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The young girl, who went missing on 19 February, has not yet been found despite the search involving drones, the navy and sniffer dogs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Bloodied clothes were recently found in an open field and the police have taken them for DNA testing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Ms Smith had previously told local publication The Daily Voice that she had not given up hope of finding her daughter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

“My motherly instincts are telling me my daughter is still alive and in this area. We will find her, I will walk on foot to find her. I will look in every little shack, I’m going to do it by myself if I have to.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Joslin was left in the care of Ms Smith’s boyfriend before she went missing. He has denied any involvement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A child goes missing every five hours in South Africa, but most are found.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother of a missing six-year-old girl, who has been charged with trafficking and kidnapping in South Africa, has abandoned her bail request. Kelly Smith, boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and another suspect have all withdrawn their […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[3525,10228,2225,10229,977,10230],"class_list":{"0":"post-27354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-cape-town","10":"tag-joslin-smith","11":"tag-missing-persons","12":"tag-saldanha-bay","13":"tag-south-africa","14":"tag-vredenburg-magistrates-court","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27358,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27354\/revisions\/27358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}