Cheryl Zondi is ready to go through the ordeal of recounting, in court, the alleged sexual assault at the hands of pastor Timothy Omotoso, should it come to that.
This as the judge presiding over the Nigerian pastor’s trial has elected to recuse himself due to possible “future perceptions” of bias.
Sowetan reported that Judge Mandela Makaula officially recused himself on Friday because his wife owned a guesthouse where state witnesses in the case stayed.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, the 22-year-old said she has accepted the possibility of reliving her testimony which brought into question the style of Omotoso’s defence cross-questioning.
“The NPA has not yet reached out to me to officially tell me how this recusal is going to affect me but I do read the news and the bottom line is that I am 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 I experienced made incapable of concentration,” said an emotional Zondi.
“I couldn’t read for a few months. As if I didn’t have to spend time from my family to keep myself alive and to keep them alive. As if I haven’t lost enough weight and sleep from all this stress I’ve endured from this process. As if, basically, all of that, all that I have been through, means nothing. The sad and harsh reality is that none of the things that I’ve mentioned are new. This is what happens in South African courts day-in and day-out.”