‘Sex a covenant with God’

TESTIMONY: PASTOR TOLD VIRGIN TO REMOVE BEFORE HE ALLEGEDLY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER

Gopolang Chawane

Televangelist Pastor Timothy Omotoso told a 14-year-old virgin to climb into his bed and remove her doek as it “made her look old” before he sexually assaulted her, the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth heard yesterday.

He recited Psalm 51 and told Cheryl Zondi this was a covenant between them and God, the now 22-year-old testified.

Omotoso is facing a series of charges for human trafficking.

Zondi told the court she was 13 when she joined the Jesus Dominion International Church in 2009. One of the girls gave her the televangelist’s number at his request. She was requested to text and call the pastor regularly.

The court heard how Zondi was 14 at the time of the assault and had never had a boyfriend.

At a national meeting, Omotoso offered her a place to stay. They drove to Umhlanga Rocks and found 30 girls at the house.

Zondi testified about alleged inappropriate engagements between Omotoso and young women who were members of his church.

Zondi’s alleged sexual assault continued over weekends and at other church gatherings across the country.

She said the only time she wasn’t assaulted was when she was on her menstrual cycle.

The flamboyantly dressed pastor refused to plead to the charges of sexual assault and racketeering.

Judge Mandela Makaula then entered a plea of not guilty.

Omotoso and his co-accused, Lusanda Solani, 36, and Zukiswa Sitho, 28, face 63 charges and 34 alternative charges.

He was arrested by the Hawks on April 20 last year and is accused of trafficking more than 30 girls from various branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, where he allegedly sexually exploited them.

Alleged accomplices Solani, of Durban, and Sitho, of Port Elizabeth, allegedly recruited girls from all over the country.

The trial was postponed to Monday.