NPA WELCOMES FORFEITURE OF DANIEL HUGO SMIT’S VEHICLE TO THE STATE 

31 July 2025

NPA WELCOMES FORFEITURE OF DANIEL HUGO SMIT’S VEHICLE TO THE STATE 

Cape Town, South Africa, The National Prosecuting Authority welcomes the forfeiture to the State of Daniel Hugo Smit’s vehicle, which he used to pursue Jerobijn Van Wyk, knock him over and kidnap him before brutally murdering him. The order was granted following the Asset Forfeiture Unit’s (AFU) decision to apply for a preservation and a forfeiture order as it believed the vehicle was an instrumentality of the offences he was convicted of and sentenced on 05 November 2024. 

The High Court of South Africa: Western Cape Division sitting at Vredenburg Magistrates Court sentenced Smit to an effective life imprisonment following his conviction on attempted murder, kidnapping, murder of 13-year-old Van Wyk, violation of his corpse and defeating the administration of justice. The court sentenced him to 15 years' direct imprisonment for attempted murder, 10 years' direct imprisonment for kidnapping, life imprisonment for murder, 5 years' direct imprisonment for violating a corpse and 3 years' direct imprisonment for defeating the administration of justice. It ordered the sentences to run concurrently and that the accused must serve two-thirds of his sentence before he could be considered eligible for parole. The court declared him unfit to possess a firearm in Section 103 of the Firearms Control Act, Act 60 of 2000. 

The AFU is governed by the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA). POCA provides for two types of civil forfeiture mechanisms - in terms of Chapter 5, which is a criminal forfeiture and is dependent on a conviction, and in terms of Chapter 6, which is a civil forfeiture and is not dependent on a conviction. In this application, the unit utilised Chapter 6 and applied for a preservation order in terms of Section 38 of POCA. 

During the criminal trial, AFU successfully applied for a preservation order, and Judge Hayley Slingers, who presided over the trial, granted it on 19 March 2025. In its application, the unit argued that Smit used the vehicle to pursue the deceased, knock him over, kidnap and murder and that it was an instrumentality of the offences listed in items 1,3 and 7 of Schedule 1 of POCA, that being murder, kidnapping, assault, and child stealing. In terms of Section 40 of POCA, AFU had 90 days to file a forfeiture application, failing which the preservation order would lapse. Today, 31 August 2025, Judge James Dumisani Lekhuleni granted the unopposed forfeiture order. The application was served on the accused in prison on 10 April 2025. 

Van Wyk’s brutal murder sent shock waves due to the gruesome manner it was committed. The court heard that on 02 February 2022, the deceased and his friend entered the accused’s property on 19 Matzikama Street, Klawer, and stole fruit from his garden. He claimed he became angry as the two boys mocked him when he spoke to them. After pursuing them with his vehicle and catching Van Wyk, he took the boy home, broke his neck, put his body in the freezer, and later dismembered it. He burnt it using tricks he claimed he learnt from a Chinese occult he joined when he was a teenager. He also claimed the occult had an influence on him and used that mitigation of sentence, as well as diminished responsibility. He asked the court to sentence him to 30 years of direct imprisonment. 

The prosecutor, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Adv Louise Freister-Sampson dismissed his claim of influence by an occult highlighting that he had not been active in the occult for more than 20 years, had not performed rituals for more than 20 years, converted to Christianity and had the Aramaic words of God painted on his house’s walls and his vehicle. She further argued that he was in control when he committed the premeditated murder, not influenced by the occult and could not claim diminished responsibility. He was just a normal murderer, and there were no substantial and compelling reasons for the court to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence of life imprisonment. The court concurred. The Director of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in the Western Cape, Adv. Nicolet Bell welcomes the successful forfeiture of a vehicle belonging to Daniel Hugo Smit to the State. The vehicle was used in the commission of criminal activities and has now been permanently removed from the accused’s possession following a successful application by the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU). 

This forfeiture forms part of the NPA’s broader strategy to ensure that crime does not pay, by targeting not only the perpetrators but also the tools and proceeds of criminal conduct. The AFU applied for and was granted a forfeiture order in the Western Cape High Court, in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA). 

Issued by: 

Eric Ntabazalila 

National Prosecuting Authority 

Regional Communications Manager – Western Cape 

Tel: (021) 487 7308 

Mobile: 073 062 1222