A woman has gone on trial, charged with kidnapping and selling her six-year-old daughter.
South African woman Kelly Smith is charged over the disappearance of her daughter, Joshlin, in February 2024.
Her partner Jacquin Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn have also been charged.
Joshlin has not been seen in more than a year, despite a countrywide police hunt.
At the time of her disappearance, police called for “every citizen, every person” to help find her amid fears she may have been taken to a different city or even out of the country.
Smith – whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith – faces charges of kidnapping and human trafficking.
Prosecutors have alleged she organised her daughter’s abduction, alongside Appollis and van Rhyn, in exchange for money.
All three defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges as the trial opened in a sports hall in the small coastal town of Saldanha Bay on Monday.
The trial had been moved to the hall to give members of the community an opportunity to attend.
Smith won sympathy across South Africa in the early days of her daughter’s disappearance.
Neighbours joined forces to help police search for the girl in sand dunes near the impoverished settlement of shacks and small houses where they lived.
Smith claimed she left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she went missing in February 2024 and had not seen her again.
The case took a shocking twist when police took Smith in for questioning and later arrested her.
Another woman was arrested, but not charged over Joshlin’s disappearance.
She is reportedly going to testify as a state witness.
Prosecutors said in the indictment that Smith had been planning since August 2023 to sell Joshlin and her two other children. However, only Joshlin went missing.
They also alleged that Smith and Joshlin were seen getting into a white vehicle with a bag of clothes the day the girl was reported missing.
The case has provoked anger in the local community.
Crowds gathered outside the sports hall, chanting “We want Joshlin back,” according to local media reports.
Judge Nathan Erasmus said the three defendants could all face life in prison if they were found guilty.
