First witness Zondi questioned about Pastor Omotoso’s ‘size’

The case against televangelist pastor Timothy Omotoso continues in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday where first witness Cheryl Zondi was questioned.

Zondi, one of the women who accused Omotoso of sexual abuse, is back on the witness stand.

Last week Zondi gave an explosive testimony detailing how she was sexually assaulted by the pastor when she was 14 years old at the pastor’s mission house in Durban.

The court heard details of inappropriate engagements between Pastor Omotoso and young women who are/were members of his church.

On Monday the prominent pastor dressed slightly less flamboyantly than he did at the previous appearance.

Zondi was questioned by Omotoso’s defence lawyer, Peter Daubermann, who is representing the trio accused.

Daubermann said the prosecution did not seem to be in possession of a commissioned copy of her affidavit given to Hawks.

He urged for the court to be adjourned as he wanted to question Zondi on the statement given to the Hawks.

He asked Zondi if she had ever read over the statement after writing it and handing it to the Hawks. Zondi said she skimmed through it.

The statement was given to the Hawks last year before the pastor was arrested in Port Elizabeth.

Daubermann then accused Zondi of fabricating her evidence before he questioned her on details of her first encounter with the pastor.

“You were in a room alone with a man. You say you were scared. What did you think was going to happen? Didn’t you wonder why the door was locked?” asked Daubermann.

She responded by saying she idolised the pastor and had always wanted him to be her musical mentor.

The court heard how the teenager knelt beside Omotoso on the night, while he was in his bed under the sheets.

Daubermann asked why Zondi did not scream, and Zondi replied she was afraid the other girls would be loyal to Omotoso.

She explained that she was too scared to oppose Omotoso because anyone who opposed him “would die”, so she allowed him to continue.

Daubermann then asked how many centimetres of Omotoso’s penis had penetrated her, but Judge Mandela Makaula said the question would not be allowed.

Omotoso and his co-accused face 63 charges and 34 alternative charges.

He is believed to have trafficked more than 30 girls and women from various branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, where he allegedly sexually exploited them.

Alleged accomplices Lusanda Solani, 36, of Durban, and Zukiswa Sitho, 28, of Port Elizabeth, allegedly recruited girls from all over the country and monitored their movements in the houses where they were being kept.

Omotoso was arrested by the Hawks at the Port Elizabeth airport on April 20 last year.

Court has adjourned for a short recess.

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