Joshlin Smith is…
October 2017 sees Joshlin born to Smith and Jose Emke. A social worker related a childhood marked by instability and drug use.
Smith mistreated her children while high after battling drug addiction starting at the age of 15. Reports state she even allegedly threatened to stab her son.
She lived in shelters for battered women and missed registering Joshlin’s birth until five months after the legal deadline.
Family friend Natasha Andrews looked after Joshlin during her rehabilitation period and had intended to adopt her. “We could have given her better than her mother,” Andrews said before the court.
Along with her mother, brothers, and Appollis, Joshlin lived in a small corrugated iron shanty in the Middelpos unofficial colony. The social worker said, “The house provided little in the way of privacy.”
