SA’s grim unsolved crimes in 2024:  Joshlin Smith, Jacques Freitag and Mark Lifman

As the year draws to a close, The Citizen rounds up some of 2024’s crime cases which ended on a cliffhanger as the nation’s anxious wait for answers has been extended into next year.

Our top three cases include little Joshlin Smith‘s mysterious disappearance; the puzzling murder of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag and the brazen hit on underworld kingpin Mark Lifman.

Unsolved crime cases of 2024

1. Joshlin Smith: The tragic disappearance case of a Saldanha girl

The little girl with the startling green eyes and sunny smile, Joshlin Smith, tragically vanished from the Middelpos informal settlement in Diazville more than 10 months ago on 19 February.

An extensive search, which has extended as far as the United Kingdom (UK) alongside Interpol, was launched to locate the Diazville Primary pupil who turned seven in October.

Joshlin Smith’s mother, boyfriend arrested

Her mother, Racquel “Kelly” Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis, and the couple’s friends Steveno van Rhyn and Lourentia “Renze” Lombaard were arrested and charged with human trafficking and kidnapping in March this year.

During Smith, Appollis and Van Rhyn’s first court appearance on 7 March, Senior State Advocate Aradhana Heeramun alleged that Smith instructed Appollis and Van Rhyn to sell Joshlin for R20 000 for traditional medicine.

The two men apparently made this confession after a gruelling 36-hour interrogation at Saldanha Police Station.

State witness: Charges against Lombaard withdrawn

During their last court appearance this year, Magistrate Theresa Postma transferred the matter to the Western Cape High Court for a pre-trial conference on 31 January 2025.

All charges against Lombaard, who will be testifying as a state witness in the upcoming trial, have been withdrawn.

Mystery woman in white car key to Joshlin Smith’s disappearance?

In the High Court indictment served on the accused, the prosecution claims that Joshlin’s disappearance was planned by her mother as far back as August 2023.

According to the State’s summary of substantial facts, in August last year, Smith – who is pregnant again behind bars – “communicated” her plan to have her son and daughters “taken away or sold”.

On 18 February, the day before the little girl’s disappearance, Smith and Joshlin had walked to a white car that was parked near to their shack.

“An unknown female person alighted from the vehicle and conversed with [Smith]. This woman handed something to [her]. [Smith] and Joshlin returned to the home,” the summary read.

“Later during this day, [Appollis, Van Rhyn, Smith and Lombaard] discussed the plan and how the money would be divided.”

Smith is said to have told Joshlin and her brother that they would not go to school that Monday.

Mom Kelly ‘left house on foot’ with bag of clothes and Joshlin

“[Smith] packed Joshlin’s clothes into a bag and left to go to work. She left [the brother], Joshlin and the bag at home in the care of [Appollis].

Later during the same day, [Lombaard, Appollis and Van Rhyn] smoked [tik] inside the house. Joshlin and [her brother] were also at the house at that time,” the State charges.

“[After work, Smith] arrived at the house. [She] took Joshlin and the bag she had packed earlier. They left the house on foot.

“[Smith] and Joshlin got into a white motor vehicle that drove away.”

The 33-year-old Smith, who has confessed to being a tik (crystal meth) user, however claims that she left her daughter in the care of Appollis when she went to do an odd domestic job.

According to her, she discovered that Joshlin was missing on her return to the couple’s tin-and-wooden shack at about 5pm.

• Anyone with information on Joshlin Smith’s whereabouts can anonymously contact Crime Stop at 08600 10111, or SMS Crime Line on 32211.

2. Jacques Freitag murder case:

High jump star Jacques Freitag’s decomposing body was found on 1 July with three gunshot wounds, multiple stab wounds and a broken arm in a field near the Zandfontein Cemetery, in Pretoria West.

The former top athlete was only 21 when he won the gold medal in the men’s high jump event clearing 2.35m at the 9th IAAF World Athletics Championship at the Stade de France in Paris on 25 August 2003.

He still holds the African record after clearing 2.38m which he set in a competition in 2005 and is one of only 10 athletes, including Usain Bolt, to win world championship titles at the youth, junior, and senior levels of an athletic event.

Killer conspiracy? Lawyer and ex-lover behind bars for Freitag murder

The two prime suspects in the investigation for Freitag’s brutal murder – controversial former lawyer Rudolph “Rudie” Lubbe, 52, and his lover Shantellè Oosthuizen, 42 – spent Christmas behind bars after abandoning their bail applications on 31 July 2024.

Lubbe and Oosthuizen were arrested on 16 July at a guest house in Sabie, Mpumalanga, following a short but intense manhunt for the couple who reportedly went on the run in connection with the 42-year-old Freitag’s murder.

According to the official charge sheet, the couple is accused of conspiring “unlawfully and willfully” with Freitag between May and June 2024 to murder Oosthuizen’s fiancé, Louis Harmse. He survived the attack.

They have also been charged with the murder of the one-time golden boy of South African athletics.

ALSO READ: ‘I am God’s mistake’: Haunting last interview with murdered SA high jump star Jacques Freitag

‘Chain-smoking’ Freitag’s last stop

Freitag was last seen alive when he left a guesthouse – situated 4km away from the cemetery – on foot on 18 June.

The retired high jumper – who, according to his sister Chrissie Lewis, was battling alcohol and drug addiction – apparently phoned the guesthouse at 6.45am to enquire about a room.

He was reportedly dropped off at the establishment with R500, cigarettes and a toiletry bag the previous day by Lubbe who fetched him from the Bronkhorstspruit home of his mother, Hendrien Pieters, at 1am to allegedly pay him for “a job”.

The lawyer, the lover and the high jumper

It is believed that Freitag’s involvement in the intricate love triangle between Lubbe, Oosthuizen and Harmse, boils down to a “botched hit”.

Harmse previously told Rapport that he was allegedly attacked by Freitag with a brick at an apartment next to Lubbe’s rental home in Montana Park on 13 June.

Freitag reportedly knew both Lubbe and Oosthuizen with whom he is said to have done drugs on a regular basis.

The investigative officer at Pretoria’s Hercules Police Station, Captain Martin Smith, confirmed to The Citizen that Lubbe and Oosthuizen are the only suspects in the murder investigation.

At the time, according to Smith, police were still trying to locate “the firearm and knife with which Freitag was killed before his body was dumped in the field”.

3. Dark underworld: Mark Lifman hit

Suspected underworld kingpin and murder accused Mark Lifman met his fate by the bullet when he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting at the Garden Route Mall, in George, on 3 November.

The 57-year-old Lifman – who was usually surrounded by his team of heavily armed bodyguards – died of multiple gunshot wounds from a high-calibre rifle to the face and chest.

Swift arrest of alleged hitmen

The suspects, identified as Johannes Hendrik Jacobs and Gert “Johnny” Bezuidenhout, were apprehended later that day near Uniondale, with surveillance footage from a nearby farm revealing them changing their VW Golf’s licence plates in a bid to avoid detection.

Jacobs has been fingered as the shooter, while Bezuidenhout allegedly drove the getaway car.

ALSO READ: Was Mark Lifman worth R10m? Alleged hitmen to apply for bail in December

‘Steroid King’ Brian Wainstein murder trial

The hit took place a day before Lifman was due back in the dock at the Western Cape High Court in connection with the 18 August 2017 murder of “Steroid King” Brian Wainstein.

The international steroid smuggler was shot and killed in his posh Constantia home in August 2017.

ALSO READ: Brian Wainstein murder trial: Mark Lifman hit delays ‘anxious’ Mr X’s testimony

Mark Lifman murder plot?

Bezuidenhout and Jacobs are listed as security specialists who, at the time of their arrest, were contracted by Personal Protection Alternatives (PPA), a private security company which services include personal protection for Cape Town’s rich and famous.

At the time of Lifman’s hit, The Citizen reported on a highly-placed police source’s theory of what allegedly triggered the murder plot against the high-profile underworld figure.

“Apparently they believed Lifman was behind the murder of one of their [security] officers in an incident in Paarden Island.”

ALSO READ: Mark Lifman: Who is ‘Johnny Bacardi’ and what happened at James Small’s Café Caprice?

‘This was done by Alwyn’ – Jerome ‘Donkie’ Booysen

Alleged Belhar Sexy Boys and 26s gang leader and one of Lifman’s co-accused in the mammoth Wainstein underworld trial, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, has publicly accused PPA owner and CEO, Alwyn Landman, of orchestrating the hit.

“Both of them work for PPA, and that ‘Johnny’ [Jacobs] is the guy who came from Task Force, and he’s a good shooter. This was done by Alwyn because Johnny is his righthand man and doesn’t move a finger unless Alwyn says he must,” Booysen told Cape Argus.

ALSO READ: Mark Lifman murder: Has security boss Alwyn Landman skipped the country?

Man of the underworld?

For decades, Lifman has faced multiple serious charges. These included murder; attempted murder (with Springboks bad boy James Dalton featuring on his alleged hit list); money laundering, as well as gang-related offences.

The Cape Town property developer however repeatedly denied the allegations racked up against him.

NOW READ: Mark Lifman and the dark underworld: Yuri the Russian, Cyril Beeka and the battle for ‘the doors’