The Joshlin Smith trial entered its third week today, with Paulina Tshosa becoming the third witness to testify.
Tshosa, a volunteer at New Vredenburg High School at the time of Joshlin’s disappearance in February last year, provided crucial details about an altercation she witnessed involving the child's mother just a day before the reported disappearance.
The Middelpos resident told the court she witnessed an altercation on Sunday, February 18, 2024, a day before Joshlin was reported missing.
Tshosa said she was headed to her hair appointment within the informal settlement when she saw a woman, later identified as Kelly, have an argument with a man.
She also witnessed a child nearby.
Tshosa told the court that the woman and what she assumed was her partner had an ugly argument, and the woman took the child, saying: ‘ek gaan jou wys (I will show you)’. She testified she saw Kelly pulling the child and heading into the shack. She also saw Joshlin show Kelly a pink flip-flop. At the time, she heard what sounded like pots and dishes falling.
“I thought she was fighting with her husband and taking her frustrations out on the child,” Tshosa said.
She further stated the man she assumed was Kelly’s partner was sitting in the middle of the boulders in the informal settlement and seated on either side of him were a man and a woman, who she only identified was a woman because her breasts were visible.
Tshosa said on February 20, 2024, a colleague at school showed her a picture from a local social media group announcing Joshlin’s disappearance.
“When I saw the picture, I said this child’s mother must tell the truth about where the child is. This child did not disappear,” Tshosa said.
She also said she recognised Joshlin from what she witnessed that Sunday.
The concerned resident told the court that the haunting words 'ek gaan jou wys' by Kelly days earlier and the way she'd argued with Boeta made her think something dreadful had happened to the child.
Tshosa told the court she kept inquiring from community members who were on the search parties about whether the child was found or not.
She had persisted in asking about leads on Joshlin’s case and in one incident she was told that a search took place at the beach and pink flip-flops were found, however, Kelly denied that Joshlin owned pink flip-flops.
While the witness said she did not know any of the accused, she would recognise them and later did when they appeared in the Vredenburg Magistrate’s Court.
“I saw Kelly, her boyfriend, and the man and woman who were sitting on the rocks,” Tshosa testified.
While two other women were previously implicated in this case, the witness was not sure which woman she saw on the day, only stating that the woman looked like a man with a short haircut.
Cape Argus