CAPE TOWN – Following repeated delays, the State has called its first witness in the trial of a pastor and two women accused of a litany of crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The entire matter had to start afresh after the judge who initially presided over the case recused himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timothy Omotoso, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho face a string of charges including rape, human trafficking and racketeering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court proceedings started on Monday with Judge Irma Schoeman dismissing media applications to allow the trial to be broadcast live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Televangelist Omotoso, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho then pleaded not guilty to all the offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The State then called its first witness Andisiwe Dike who joined Omotoso’s Jesus Dominion International Church in May 2014 after her mother invited her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dike said that at the time, she knew who Omotoso was and regarded him as a “powerful man of God”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As she became more involved with the church, Dike would accompany another senior pastor to hand out pamphlets.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told the court of Omotoso’s numerous titles and nicknames such as “daddy”, “papa”, “the man of God” and “the general”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Timothy Omotoso, Lusanda Sulani and Zukiswa Sitho face a string of charges including rape, human trafficking and racketeering. CAPE TOWN – Following repeated delays, the State has called its first witness in the trial of a pastor and two women accused of a litany of crimes. The entire matter had to start afresh after the […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"tpgb_global_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-trafficking","category-news","category-rape"],"tpgb_featured_images":{"full":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n.jpg",463,289,false],"tp-image-grid":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n.jpg",463,289,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n-300x187.jpg",300,187,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n.jpg",463,289,false],"large":["https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/inoyrzotlbssckfzmz1n.jpg",463,289,false],"default":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/wp-content\/plugins\/the-plus-addons-for-block-editor\/assets\/images\/tpgb-placeholder.jpg"},"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"February 27, 2020","get_modified_date":"February 27, 2020","category_list":{"category":[{"term_id":39,"name":"Human Trafficking","slug":"human-trafficking","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":39,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Human Trafficking News and Updates","parent":0,"count":61,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":19,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":238,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":25,"name":"Rape","slug":"rape","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":25,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":false,"post_format":false},"author_name":"Hope To Heal","author_url":"https:\/\/site.hopetoheal.org.za\/staging\/author\/hope2233\/","author_email":"webmaster@hopetoheal.org.za","author_website":"","author_description":"Our mission is for women and children to live free from violence and abuse and to provide quality, compassionate, and nonjudgmental services in a manner that fosters self-respect and independence in persons experiencing domestic violence and child abuse and to lead the struggle to end domestic violence through advocacy and community education.","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"Hope To","author_lastname":"Heal Foundation","user_login":"Hope2233","author_avatar":"