Johannesburg- The first witness in the Bishop Zondo trial returned to the stand, continuing her cross-examination for the second week, at the Pretoria High Court on Monday morning.
The witness who is a relative to the accused continued to be cross-examined by the defence, on events that took place during the time of a family meeting after she opened a case against Zondo.
The defence questioned the witness as to why she had said the accused was rough when he had raped her the third time.
“What changed the mood of the accused when he allegedly raped you the third time?,” the defence asked the witness.
“On the third occasion, he was aggressive and rough because I was crying and refusing to comply with what he wanted to do to me,” she responded.
The defense asked the witness why she never mentioned the family meeting in the statement which she gave to the police, details surrounding the family meeting and what time it started were unclear.
The witness claims the family meeting started at 2:30 pm and Zondo, however, disputed the time of the meeting and the defence shared it began at 6:30 pm.
The defence then asked the witness if she had called the meeting because she had wanted to extort money from the accused because he is well off.
“The meeting was for him to own up to the allegations against him and for him to ask for forgiveness. I never intended to ruin his reputation by doing the radio interview, my reputation too was affected by this,” she shared.
The witness further revealed that she suffered a stroke at the tender age of 12 and the doctors never understood why she suffered a stroke at a young age.
“When the accused saw that I had refused everything that he offered, he said something that scared me: I will never stand in the court of law with my blood relative, that will never happen.’
The defence then revealed that Zondo offered the witness R25 000 which was strictly for medicinal purposes only. The R25 000 was to help the witness. The accused also wanted everything to be written down so nobody would later say he was trying to bribe anyone.
Zondo remained calm and collected in the dock as the witness further continued with her cross-examination.
Priests from the church also came in numbers to attend the trial proceedings.
Zondo has pleaded not guilty to all charges made against him and the trial continues on Tuesday Morning, where the next witness will give their testimony to the court.
Also read: Alleged victim continues giving testimony in Bishop Zondo case
Follow SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
