“I was raped in a hotel room by Danny Jordaan. There’s no question about what happened.”
That was the word from former ANC MP and artist, Jenniffer Ferguson, in an interview via Skype with broadcaster ENCA.
Ferguson was responding to a statement issued by Jordaan on Wednesday in which he denied raping the musician in a Port Elizabeth hotel room more than 20 years ago.
Jordaan’s lawyer, Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi said her client’s perceived silence in the face of such serious allegations was because of his “empathy with victims” of gender-based violence.
She said, “in light of the scourge of gender-based violence in this country and Dr Jordaan’s sensitivity toward the issue he had to consider carefully his response, if any, in public to the allegations made by Ms Ferguson.”
Mohlala-Mulaudzi said that Jordaan has, however, after careful consideration decided to “assert his innocence.”
Jordaan also rejected Ferguson’s offer of mediation, saying it ran the “risk that the public will perceive that there is a cover-up away from the glare of public scrutiny; and that there is one law for the powerful and another for the masses.”
The SAFA boss said Ferguson’s claims can “only be ventilated in a court of law, where the rights of all parties are protected.”
Ferguson told ENCA that she was “not surprised” by his denial. She said it was “inevitable that he was going to play the long game.”
Ferguson suggested that Jordaan issued the statement after a third woman reportedly made similar allegations against him on Talk Radio 702 on Tuesday night.
The former ANC MP said that she was “saddened by their dismissal of mediation”, saying that the mediation process would have been done in a “sensitive way” that took into account the victims and their families as well as the well-being of Jordaan’s family.
Ferguson also questioned Jordaan’s stated commitment to the public discourse on gender violence, saying he had not presented himself for the debate on gender-based violence.
“We’re not allowed to engage with him,” she said.
She also said that she was still waiting for “any kind of response” from the ANC, adding that she was not surprised at the governing party’s silence on the matter.
Ferguson said that “there’s a real fear in Danny Jordaan’s party (ANC) that more revelations would come out.
