‘When are you gonna be ready for me?’ – Omotoso witness recounts alleged sexual molestation

*WARNING: This story contains sensitive details and testimony of a sexual nature

Andisiwe Dike, the first witness in the trial of rape and human trafficking accused Timothy Omotoso and his two co-accused, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho, was allegedly sexually groomed in the mission house in Durban where she and about 28 other girls had stayed.

Dike gave testimony in the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth on Monday, opting to testify in open court. Omotoso and his co-accused face 97 charges, including rape, human trafficking and racketeering.

She told the court that as soon as she arrived at the house, having allegedly been recruited by a syndicate that lured girls and young women to the house for Omotoso’s sexual pleasure, she was exposed to the Nigerian televangelist’s sexual side.

On the third day after arriving at the house, while she was undoing her hair on a Sunday afternoon after attending church, “another girl came in and said the first accused, Omotoso, was calling me to massage his feet”, Dike said.

“It was my third day at the house, so I knew the routine by now… I knew that I had to wash my hands before touching him. I did this and then massaged his feet.

“He then asked me… When are you gonna be ready for me? I said anytime,” she testified.

‘Did my routine’

She said she later asked to go and sleep in the room she shared with five other girls.

“On Monday morning, I woke up and did my routine, waiting to be called. The same girl who had called me before came and said Omotoso was calling me.”

Dike said Omotoso then instructed her to lock the door behind her “then I knelt next to him, he was in bed”.

“I was wearing a dress and sat cross-legged so I could cover my legs with the dress.”

She said he took her legs and put them on either side of his, so she could open her own legs.

“While I was massaging him, he said I can do anything I want, touch anything I want.”

She added she massaged his knees and feet, and that Omotoso then lifted her by her rib section and flipped her over “then he instructed me to take off my underwear”.

“Take off your underwear, I won’t enter, he instructed me.”

Dike said he got directly on top of her and she could feel his penis, then he started moving while on top of her.

He then stopped briefly, told her to “relax” and “be yourself” then continued.

“I could feel him rubbing his penis on my womanhood, all the way down to the entrance of my vagina…” she slowly narrated, her voice going faint, as she explained.

“I don’t know how long it took for him to finish doing what he was doing.

“And then he told me to go and get a towel and also take his boxer shorts and put them in the washing basket,” she said, adding that she was wet in the genital area.

‘Destined to please this man sexually’

Dike said she wiped herself in the bathroom but in his presence. She then gave him the towel to wipe himself.

“When I was done, as I was leaving, he said ‘come, come’ and hugged me saying the same prayer he had said when he first molested me.”

Dike said she left, went to her room and took a shower. “I changed my clothing and life in the house went on.”

She added he threw a midweek party for the girls born in April in the house, but that by then she had started to see him in a different light.

“I felt deceived, this man was not what I’d expected him to be. I asked myself if I was destined to please this man sexually.”

Dike said she had seen how other girls who had come back from the Durban mission house were ridiculed in front of the congregation in the East London church for having returned home.

She said that Pastor Chuks, one of the leaders at the East London branch, would scold them in front of the congregation or speak about them in the presence of the congregation.

She said he would ask how they could think they would be better than the “Man of God”.

“‘You South Africans are stupid!'” he reportedly said.

“I had also witnessed girls forced to apologise to Omotoso by Chuks. ‘Beg him for your forgiveness and then go back there, to Durban,'” Dike claimed Chuks would tell the girls.

She said she kept her secret and never told anyone in her family what had happened to her.

“I never told my mom. I was shielding her from the shame I had been subjected to.”

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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