Trial set for Pastor Omotoso

The day of reckoning for controversial Nigerian Pastor Timothy Omotoso will be soon after the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court transferred his case to the high court for trial.

Omotoso, 59, along with Zukiwa Sitho, 28, and Lusanda Solani, 36, face 63 charges including racketeering, contravention of the Sexual Offences Act, human trafficking and rape, among others.

Theywill appear in the Port Elizabeth High Court on August 2 for a pretrial conference.

Charges against Nobubele Mlindi, 31, were withdrawn.

Omotoso was arrested in April last year at the Port Elizabeth airport and has been in custody since.

Sitho and Solani were released on R2 000 bail each, with strict conditions, in December.

State prosecutor Nceba Ntelwa told Magistrate Thandeka Mashiyi that the state had received authorisation to centralise the matter and to include the two charges of racketeering against the three.

Five charges against Omotoso for contravening the Immigration Act were also provisionally withdrawn pending the completion of the high court matter.

“The case [involving the charges related to the immigration act] could not be joined to the other matter going to the high court [therefore] the state is provisionally withdrawing the charges,” Ntelwa said.