Omotoso wins small victory
Rape and human trafficking accused Pastor Timothy Omotoso and his co-accused claimed a small victory yesterday when the Gqeberha high court ordered that some special entries be made in their court file.
This after Omotoso, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho’s lawyer, Peter Daubermann, had brought an application for the entries to be made after failing to convince judge Irma Schoeman to completely scrap all the charges the three face.
In her judgment yesterday, Schoeman said while she could not find grounds to order special entries on all the alleged irregularities as suggested by Daubermann, others were noted.
The entries made by Schoeman include that it be noted that:
● On July 3 2019, then lead prosecutor in the matter, advocate Nceba Ntelwa, had proposed to his superiors and then co-prosecutor, advocate Ismat Cerfontein, that at least three state witnesses commit perjury;
● That all the advocates involved in the matter had intentionally failed to disclose to the court that there were contradictions in some of the witnesses’ testimony under oath as opposed to what they said in their respective statements, and;
● That Ntelwa’s superiors including the deputy director of public prosecutions, advocate Indra Goberdan, allowed Ntelwa to continue prosecuting the case even after it came to light that he suggested that witnesses lie under oath.
It was only after Schoeman intervened that Ntelwa was removed from the case and a new prosecutor took over.
Schoeman found there were no grounds to enter the other alleged irregularities into the court file.
The three now face 32 charges ranging from racketeering to trafficking in persons for sexual purposes, rape and sexual assault.
In her judgment in the Section 174 bid to have the charges against them dismissed, Schoeman found that Omotoso, Sulani and Sitho were tried fairly, and that while Ntelwa may have acted irregularly, it was not sufficient grounds to rule a mistrial.
Omotoso has been in custody since his arrest at the Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in April 2017, while Sulani and Sitho are out on bail.
The matter was postponed to June 24, when the defence is expected to begin its case.