South Africa shocked by live rape trial of Timothy Omotoso

Many South Africans have rallied around Ms Cheryl Zondi, who testified in a televised rape trial against a Nigerian televangelist Timothy Omotosi. Mr Omotosi and two others are facing 97 charges, ranging from sexual assault to rape and human trafficking. PHOTO| TWITTER

What you need to know:

  • Mr Omotoso and two female co-accused are facing 97 charges, ranging from sexual assault to rape and human trafficking. They deny all the charges.
  • Since it began last week, the nation seems to have stopped in its tracks to follow the trial, and social media erupted in support and sympathy for Ms Zondi.

A televised rape trial in South Africa has prompted a furious public backlash after a witness — who says she was raped by her pastor from the age of 14 — was subjected to a lengthy and, at times, aggressively intimate cross-examination by the lawyer representing a 60-year-old Nigerian televangelist, Timothy Omotoso, who denies the allegation.

Warning: This piece contains graphic content which may upset some readers.

Over the weekend, Mr Omotoso's church, in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, was forced to shut its door after angry crowds besieged the building, while a Sunday newspaper reported that the woman who gave evidence against him — Cheryl Zondi, now a 22-year-old student — had received death threats ahead of the trial.

The trial — the first prominent rape case to be broadcast live in a country where more than 100 rapes are reported to the police each day — has attracted huge interest, and raised difficult questions about victims' rights, impartiality and whether justice is best served by having television cameras in courtrooms.

#METOO

Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's granddaughter, Ndileka Mandela — who said in 2017 that she had been raped by a former boyfriend — is one of many South African women who have voiced support for Ms Zondi, linking her experience to the global #MeToo movement.

Ms Mandela argued that the student's treatment during three days in the witness box helped explain why so many rape victims stay silent in a nation with notoriously high levels of sexual violence.

MIRACLES AND PROPHECIES
"I really feel pain for this young woman and I am so proud to see how courageous she's been on the witness stand," Ms Mandela told South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper.

Mr Omotoso and two female co-accused, from the Jesus Dominion International church, based in South Africa's Eastern Cape, are facing 97 charges, ranging from sexual assault to rape and human trafficking. They deny all the charges.

The church — one of a growing number of evangelical ministries in the country, promising miracles and prophecies for its followers — is known for its videos of uniformed young women singers, some of whom have appeared on the Idols SA television contest.

Since it began last week, the nation seems to have stopped in its tracks to follow the trial, and social media erupted in support and sympathy for Ms Zondi.

She was the first prosecution witness and told the court, with great composure, that Mr Omotoso - quoting the psalms and threatening God's anger if she did not comply - had allegedly repeatedly raped her a year after she had joined his church as a child.

CROSS-EXAMINATION

But public sympathy soon turned to fury when Mr Omotoso's lawyer, Peter Daubermann, sought to challenge her account.

Shouts in the courtroom

"You're a good actress," he said.

"I put it to you that you are lying about what happened to you.

"You were prepared to let him rape you?

"You basically consented?" he asked, referring to later alleged incidents when Ms Zondi was an adult.

South Africa's justice system is deliberately confrontational, and lawyers are expected to challenge witnesses robustly — perhaps the most famous instance being prosecutor Gerrie Nel's explosive quarrels with disgraced Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius during his murder trial.

But in this case, according to the opinion of some experts and ordinary South Africans, Mr Daubermann appeared to cross a line.

"How many centimetres? Do you know?" he asked Ms Zondi, after she had described how the pastor had allegedly partially penetrated her, at the age of 14.

There were cries and shouts in the courtroom.

"How would she know that?" Judge Mandela Makaula interrupted, visibly angry.

"She could have felt it," suggested Mr Daubermann.

"And measured it at the same time? No. I will not allow that question," declared the judge, who went on to thank Ms Zondi for her testimony and to wish her good luck in the university exams she had interrupted in order to attend the trial.

"This is not about you. This is about justice," he told her.

"Cheryl has set a precedent and we can only pray other victims will be encouraged by this. We salute her," a local spokesman for the National Prosecuting Authority told journalists.