Dodgy pastor Timothy Omotoso has left the country, scurrying through OR Tambo International Airport in a hoodie and sunglasses, as if he had something to hide.
Which maybe he did, considering he’d been up on dozens of rape, racketeering and human trafficking charges in connection with activities at the Jesus Dominion International Church, until he was acquitted in the Gqeberha high court last month.
It was not so much that Omotoso and his two co-accused proved their innocence — a point made by judge Irma Schoeman — but that the state failed dismally to prove the trio’s guilt.
Omotoso’s story is book-ended by two airport pulp thrillers, the second infinitely less dramatic than the first — his 2017 arrest at Dawid Stuurman in Gqeberha.
Bushiri — who claimed he could walk on air — couldn’t have flown SAA because it’s a non-prophet airline
While trudging through the domestic terminal at OR Tambo International last week, Omotoso was briefly stopped by officials and served with an order barring him from returning for five years. Cold comfort for his accusers.
Omotoso now joins self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri in the club of preachers who have slipped the surly bonds of South African law.
Bushiri, who was facing charges of rape and fraud, miraculously slipped out of the country in 2020 in what the BBC drily notes were “unclear circumstances” (the joke at the time was that Bushiri — who claimed he could walk on air — couldn’t have flown SAA because it’s a non-prophet airline). He’s now fighting extradition from Malawi.
Don’t hold your breath, though, for miracles these days are, like justice, in short supply.
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