‘You made our lives hell on earth,’ Kelly’s mother writes in a statement

THE mother of Kelly Smith had her victim impact statement read out in court on Wednesday, and she did not mince her words. 

Amanda Smith Daniels' statement, initially directed at her daughter, expressed her anger and pain. 

The statement was read out in court by the Court Preparation Officer, Deonett Boltney. 

“Kelly, you’ve come to make our lives hell on earth. You came to break us and tear us apart. Do you know what it’s like to lie awake every night and what it feels like, my heart is ripped out of my body because I pray for Joshlin,” it read. 

She explained how she prays for her granddaughter’s safety. 

“My pillow is riddled with tears over your actions. Do you know what it feels like every morning to wake my grandchildren up for school? It weighs heavily on my heart because I feel like I need to be at their school all day to ensure nothing happens to them,” Smith Daniels said. 

She explained how her anxiety has gotten the best of her; if her eldest grandchild (Kelly’s son) is just two minutes late for school, she goes frantic and into panic mode. The grandmother told Kelly she had to stand in and tuck her son in at night, have her granddaughter (Kelly’s youngest) over for the holidays and her crown birthday. 

“At night, when I got up to use the bathroom, she would fly up, have her arms stretched out and ask where I was going. I would have to pick her up because she was afraid I would leave her alone. It broke me every time she was playing and suddenly would come up to me and tell me: ‘mommy, you know my sister is gone and my mom too’.”

She also asked Kelly a question, perhaps the entire nation was hoping to ask. 

“How did your heart feel on Mother’s Day? I cried my eyes out when my grandchildren came to surprise me with breakfast in bed, and your son wished me a Happy Mother’s Day. Didn’t you wish you had your three children with you? I am the one who prays with him in the evenings, helps him with his schoolwork, and sits at the table with him to read. You tried using our personal lives to air dirty laundry with your actions,” the heartbroken grandmother said. 

She explained that while Kelly was adopted by her grandparents, it was because she was young and had no knowledge of rearing a child, but she let them rear her because she went job hunting and knew they would give her daughter the best that they could. 

Smith Daniels said they had continuously come back to Saldanha to collect Kelly and her child, even when Joshlin was born, but she refused. 

“I offered to adopt your son, and you told me you would just go out and have another child. I go to Rahand's (Kelly’s deceased brother) grave to cry my heart out. My son was sick and died in a hospital. Where do I go if I want to cry for Joshlin?” she asked. 

She also asked whether Kelly ever felt any remorse for the Andrews family, who only wanted the best for Joshlin. 

“You don’t want to take responsibility for your actions, and now you want to play the victim. You looked at me in my face and told me: ‘Mommy, I will talk at our next appearance. I believed you because you said your lawyer told you you’d be able to speak. How do you sleep? How do you live with yourself?”

She called Kelly heartless. 

“I pray to God to be with you and awaken the mother in you. How heartless can one be? No sentence will be enough until we find Joshlin. How do you think your son is handling it? Having being the butt of jokes. Children teased him because his mother uses tik and she sold his sister. I have had to fetch him from school because of the ugly things children say. At such a young age, he already has to protect himself from this cruel world.” 

She went further, telling Kelly that Joshlin would have received all the love and attention from the Andrews family, who would have been the best parents to her.