Sex sessions called ‘appointments’

The first witness to testify in the rape and human trafficking trial of self-proclaimed pastor Timothy Omotoso testified in the Eastern Cape High Court in Port Elizabeth that Omotoso’s co-accused knew what happened in the Durban mission house.

Andisiwe Dike said she discovered this when co-accused Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho made startling confessions that they, too, had been summoned by Omotoso in the past for sex.

“We were sitting and talking in the prayer room and accused two [Sulani] said not everyone had appointments with accused one [Omotoso].”

Private sexual sessions with Omotoso were called “appointments”, the court heard.

“She mentioned that she stopped going to the appointments a long time ago. She said she must have gone twice for the appointments and then stopped.”

Dike said the confession was made during a crusade at the Motherwell Sport Centre in Port Elizabeth, where the group stayed in a rented apartment.

“Accused three [Sitho] would always be in the apartment. She would be around wherever we were and one day, as we were preparing clothes for Omotoso, she made her own confession.

“She said she wore the boyfriend’s jeans deliberately because Omotoso didn’t like torn clothes, so she deliberately wore them so he could send her away. But [on that day] he was being all lovey-dovey with her.”

He told her he would call her for an “appointment” but she told the girls she would switch her phone off.

Dike also told the court that both Sulani and Sitho were married to men close to Omotoso.

She said Sulani’s husband was a pastor-in-training at the time and Sitho’s husband was the key protocol officer. “Both co-accused have had appointments with Omotoso, while accused three is now his bodyguard’s wife,” the witness added.

On Monday, Dike testified that Omotoso groomed and molested her. She told the court that as soon as she arrived at the house, after she was allegedly 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.

She said she never consented. “I was not participating in what he was doing and I would limit my time of going to his room after the encounters.”

Dike said she thought Omotoso knew she was not comfortable and did not consent to what he was doing to her. “I was scared of him, scared of going against whatever he was doing to me.

“Pastor Chuks told me to always pray and do whatever was done there and be strong. I was afraid I’d be punished because I had offended God’s favoured child.” – News24 Wire