A trio claiming to be members of alleged sex-pest pastor Timothy Omotoso’s church suddenly withdrew their application, which sought to prevent people from protesting outside the church, on Thursday.
Three members of the Jesus Dominion International church brought the application to the Port Elizabeth High Court in October claiming they had been prevented from accessing the church building in Govan Mbeki Avenue due to protests.
They claimed they had been harassed, intimidated and forced to shut the church’s doors.
Ntombo Mzi Sweetness Mbaza, Mbeko Bandla Sizasomzi Mnyatheli and Madoda Lennox Cingo filed the notice of motion citing the ANC Youth League, ANC Women’s League, EFF and Jesus Dominion as respondents in the matter. They did not seek any relief from Jesus Dominion. However, the motion to prevent members of various political parties from staging protests outside the church did not make it to court.
Speaking outside the Bird Street court building, the legal counsel for the ANC youth and women’s leagues, advocate Sinawo Makangela, said the parties had discussed the withdrawal of the application with a judge in chambers.
“This has just been a waste of court time and resources.
“They had no case to start off with,” Makangela said.
On October 21, a group calling itself Nelson Mandela Bay Citizens in Unity, which included members of the youth and women’s leagues, EFF, Sasco, Saftu and other civil bodies, protested outside the church, leading to it shutting its doors.
Omotoso, along with Lusanda Sulani, 36, and Zukiswa Sitho, 28, is facing a total of 97 charges, among them racketeering, human trafficking, rape and sexual assault.
Since the beginning of the trial in October, groups of supporters from the church as well as supporters of the alleged victims have gathered outside the Bird Street courthouse.
Instructing attorney for the applicants Stuart Laubscher said the application was withdrawn to avoid unnecessary court costs after it became clear that the protesting outside the church had stopped.
He said should protests flare up again outside the church, they would bring another application. Makangela confirmed the ANC youth and women’s leagues would bring an application for the church members to cover the costs of the withdrawn application.
Youth league regional secretary Luyolo Nqakula said the party would intensify its campaign against Omotoso and his church.
“We made a commitment to support all the victims of Omotoso. [The church] is a crime scene, it is not a church,” Nqakula said.