Safa president Danny Jordaan denies rape allegation
South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan has denied the rape allegation by former ANC MP and singer Jennifer Ferguson.
Danny Jordaan, president of Safa (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
In a statement released by his lawyer Mamodupi Mohlala-Mulaudzi, Jordaan denied raping Ferguson in a Port Elizabeth hotel 24 years ago.
Here’s the statement released by Jordaan through his lawyer:
Ms Ferguson has alleged that Dr Jordaan raped her 24 years ago. Dr Jordaan denies that he raped Ms Ferguson.
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. Dr Jordaan’s perceived silence in the face of such serious allegations is because of his empathy with the victims of gender-based violence. Dr Jordaan has, however, after careful consideration decided to assert his innocence.
Whilst Dr Jordaan supports public debate as an essential tool to highlight the issue of gender-based violence, however, in this case there are two opposing versions that cannot be resolved in the media, or elsewhere, in substitution for a court of law. Mediation, as suggested by Ms Ferguson, runs 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.
We have accordingly, as his attorneys, advised Dr Jordaan that he must not participate in a public discourse of the allegation made against him by Ms Ferguson.
From a legal viewpoint, serious allegations of the kind made by Ms Ferguson can only be ventilated in a court of law, where the rights of all parties are protected.
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