The State has sought to discredit the testimony of its latest witness, the maternal grandmother of the mother accused of selling the sexual services of her minor daughters (aged 13 and 11 at the time).
She took the stand as the trial against the 39-year-old mother and her co-accused attorney, Carel Schoeman, continued in a high court sitting in Palm Ridge on November 29.
Her testimony in court, however, differed from what she had told the police in a statement, and the State moved an application to have her testimony discredited.
In her testimony, the grandmother spoke about what the daughter told her during a holiday in Uvongo in September 2022 while she packed her bags to go to Polokwane.
She told the court that the girl, who was 13 years old, asked if she could come with her because she was tired of working with her mother.
State Advocate Riana Williams asked the witness if she knew what work the daughter did.
The grandmother responded that, at the time, she did “escort work”.
She also testified that the girl didn’t tell her she worked as a prostitute. She just collected the money.
The grandmother also talked about how she was told her granddaughter was allegedly sold.
She got the name of the alleged buyer, Schoeman, and contacted him via Facebook.
“I threatened him with social media and Carte Blanche. I told him I got his photos from social media,” she said.
According to the witness, Schoeman returned the girl two days later.
The mother said she could not ask her daughter what was happening with the daughter being sold because she did not have a number and was blocked on social media.
During cross-examination, she told the court her daughter is a good mother. She also said the eldest daughter felt unhappy and missed her mother and siblings during the time she spent with her.
After the cross-examination by the accused legal counsel, advocates Harold Davids (mother) and Deon Pool (Schoeman), was done, the State moved an application to discredit the witness.
Williams said what the grandmother said in court contradicted what she told the police.
The grandmother then confirmed her statement to the police was true and correct.
Williams asked the grandmother to read a specific paragraph of her statement: “She (her granddaughter) said she hates her mother. I asked why. What did the mother do? She said the mother is renting her out.”
The matter was postponed to November 26.
The lawyer is accused of buying the 13-year-old from the mother. Schoeman faces 26 charges, the mother 72, and they recently pleaded not guilty to all of them.
The charges include rape, sexual abuse of a minor, child trafficking and the pointing of a firearm.
The offences allegedly happened in Boksburg, Heidelberg, Brakpan, Springs (Ekurhuleni), Villiers (Free State) and Amanzimtoti and Ramsgate (KwaZulu-Natal) between mid-2022 and early 2023.
In his plea explanation, Schoeman said he was under the impression the girl was 19.
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