Court chaos in PE as pastor’s lawyer mobbed
Mediclinic takes action on Zondi post
CHAOS erupted outside the high court in Port Elizabeth yesterday when Pastor Timothy Omotoso’s lawyer, Peter Daubermann, was harassed by angry protesters.
They were among the #TotalShutDown movement in court to support State witness Cheryl Zondi, 22, who was cross-examined for the third day.
Protesters called Daubermann a “rubbish (for) defending a rapist”.
Omotoso’s supporters, and those protesters who were in court to support survivors of rape, clashed in the street shortly after the trial was adjourned for the day.
Before adjourning, Judge Mandela Makaula wished Zondi well with her exams, due to start on Monday.
Zondi will return to court after her exams.
Earlier, Zondi told the court how she feared the police.
Daubermann had asked her about her planned escape from the mission house in Durban during August 2015.
Zondi said she was in communication with her mother to plan her escape from the house.
She said she needed money to leave but had refused to give her mother the pastor’s address because she feared her mother would contact the SAPS.
“How can I trust the police, they were his security protocol at church, they took off their jackets so that he (Omotoso) could walk over it.”
Zondi said the police adored the televangelist and were instructed by him to wear their official SAPS uniform.
Zondi said she did not trust the police because they escorted Omotoso in and out of the church auditorium.
Zondi earlier told the court she decided to rejoin the church to “get closure”, saying she wanted an apology from Omotoso for raping and sexually abusing her and she was promised by other church girls that things had changed.
She was hopeful the rape and sexual violation of her body were a thing of the past.
But she quickly realised that nothing had changed and claimed she was repeatedly raped and held prisoner upon her return to Jesus Dominion International (JDI) church and the mission house.
The trial continues on Monday. |
MEDICLINIC has fired a staff member at Mediclinic Muelmed private hospital in Pretoria after comments she made about alleged rape victim Cheryl Zondi’s testimony went viral on social media.
Mediclinic said in a statement: “Mediclinic can confirm that the staff member in question is no longer in the employ of the nursing agency, and that the individual has been requested to remove all association with the organisation effective immediately.
“Mediclinic has launched an investigation into the matter and has been in consultation with the nursing agency that employed the staff member.”
In social media posts brought to Mediclinic’s attention on Twitter, screenshots of a conversation between two women describe Zondi’s testimony against Nigerian evangelist Pastor Timothy Omotoso as unnecessary because “she got what she deserved”.
One of the screenshots – loosely translated from Zulu – said: “These kids are silently promiscuous and now they make it as if they were raped. Some of them (are) still using their bodies in exchange of cash. He f***** them a little, you know.”
Zondi’s testimony concluded, in the Port Elizabeth High Court yesterday, after two-and-a-half days of gruelling cross-examination by defence advocate Peter Daubermann, at the rape and human trafficking trial of Omotoso.
Zondi, 22, earlier testified that she was raped and sexually abused by Omotoso when she joined the Jesus Dominion International (JDI) in 2009, at the age of 13.
The pastor faces 63 main charges and 34 alternative counts, which include human trafficking, rape, sexual assault, racketeering and conspiracy in aiding another person to commit sexual assault.
His alleged henchwomen, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho, are accused of recruiting girls for sexual exploitation.
The 58-year-old televangelist allegedly trafficked more than 30 girls and women from branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, where he allegedly sexually exploited them. |