Callie Schoeman listens to the mother’s testimony on Tuesday, which has been going on for the fifth day. (Photo: Isabel Venter/Maroela Medi
A Gauteng mother who admits that she allowed two of her underage daughters to work as sex workers began to contradict herself in her testimony.
The woman, whose name may not be mentioned, is on trial with Carel “Callie” Schoeman, a lawyer from Heidelberg, on more than 70 charges that include rape, human trafficking and the possession and production of child pornography.
The mother testified for a fifth day in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday to state her side of the case.
During the last part of her main testimony, led by her legal representative Harold Davids, the mother gave a third version of who exactly created the advertisements for her eldest daughter. According to the state, in 2022 and 2023, the mother placed several advertisements for the girl, then 13 years old, on websites where she was offered as a sex worker.
The mother first testified that she had the first advertisement done after her daughter “decided of her own free will to also become a prostitute”. Later she testified that it was the daughter who arranged the ads, but that “we” decided together to provide a fake birth certificate to the websites “because the websites’ rules prohibited advertising to girls under 18”.
Carel “Callie” Schoeman. (Photo: Isabel Venter/Maroela Media)
The “we” the mother referred to was herself, her daughter and a third sex worker who was her eldest son’s girlfriend at the time. On Tuesday, however, the mother testified that it was “we who posted the ad”, without elaborating on who “we” are.
After Davids finished the interrogation, Adv. Cronjé Kriel, on behalf of Schoeman, begins to cross-examine the mother. It turned out during this interrogation that the mother may have known that her actions were wrong.
The mother testified earlier that she “didn’t see anything wrong” with her daughters being sex workers, because she herself started working as one from the age of 13. She also testified that to her knowledge it is not a crime for children over 12 to be sex workers.
She further testified that she and her eldest daughter lied to Schoeman about the child’s true age. Schoeman’s version is that he thought she was 19 years old, because that was the age indicated online.
On Tuesday, the mother testified that she did not give her daughter’s true age to Schoeman. Kriel wanted to know: “Then if it is normal to be sexually active from the age of 13, why didn’t you introduce her to Schoeman and others like that?”
To this the woman replied: “Why would I do that? It was a matter between them… I only met him later when they were already in love and I felt it was not my place to interfere in my daughter’s affairs.”
The case continues.