Zondi will ‘suffer second round of trauma’ if need be
“IF I have to go through ‘secondary victimisation’ again then so be it,” said Cheryl Zondi, one of the main witnesses in the sexual abuse trial against pastor Timothy Omotoso.
Speaking at a press conference in Joburg yesterday on the way forward for her after Judge Mandela Makaula recused himself from the rape trial, Zondi said she would re-testify against Omotoso.
“I don’t care how many times I have to tell the truth or go through the same process… I will keep doing it, I will not give up, and that is that,” said Zondi.
“I have a responsibility to live up to the confidence our people have in me and to keep going.”
Zondi said the court process was agonising for her before and she expected it to be even worse the second time.
“I want everyone looking up to me to see that it’s possible to go through this and move on, be happy, be unapologetic, wear what they want, go where they want, be sexual if they want and just live how they want.”
She said the National Prosecuting Authority had not reached out to her to officially tell her how the recusal was going to affect her.
“But I do read the news, and the bottom line is that I’m likely going to have to start testifying all over again from scratch, as if nothing happened last year – as if I didn’t have to write special exams because the trauma made me dyslexic for a few months.”
Omotoso, 58, faces 63 main charges and 34 alternative counts, including human trafficking, rape, sexual assault, racketeering and conspiracy in aiding another person to commit sexual assault.