'Danny Jordaan's silence casts aspersions on his integrity'
Updated | By Jacaranda FM News
The Commission for Gender Equality has raised concern about the mounting sexual assault accusations against Danny Jordaan.
The soccer boss has been accused of rape and now sexual assault.
Artist and former ANC MP Jennifer Ferguson took to her blog a few weeks ago and wrote about her rape ordeal more than 20 years ago.
She named Jordaan as the man who violated her all those years ago.
Another woman has since come forward and shared her story of how in 2004, she too found herself in a room with Jordaan, this time, his executive suite in a Sandton hotel in Johannesburg.
EXCLUSIVE: "I believe Jennifer Ferguson" - another woman speaks out
She counts herself lucky that she got away from what she describes as a persistent Jordaan, who made his intentions for that late afternoon very clear. The woman has asked that her identity be withheld.
"Our meeting was done and his conversation shifted to my general wellbeing, my family. I found it unsettling, I didn't want to talk about myself, this was business. Then, he moved closer. He placed his hand on my thigh, worked his way up and started rubbing. I knew I was in trouble. I didn't want this. This was not okay. I had to get away.
"I removed his hand and then he did something that is still the starkest memory of the entire ordeal. He started grinning. He told me that he was interested in something more than just a working relationship with me. I told him I felt uncomfortable. I told him that I thought his behaviour was inappropriate because this is not what I wanted. I was trying to talk myself out of the situation.
"I watched the door and in a moment of clarity I knew what I had to do - make a run for it. I jumped up and did just that. In a matter of seconds I ran down the corridor, into the lift, shaking like a leaf, no looking back. I ran to my car, locked the doors and sat there for an hour. Still shaking. I needed to calm down. I couldn't drive like this. I needed to breathe, not think. Just, calm down. Drive away. Drive home. I got away. I got out. I'm okay," she told Kagiso Media's head of journalism Faith Daniels.
Ferguson says she wants Jordaan to apologise to her, to admit to what he has done, in a restorative justice process instead of pursuing the matter through the courts.
The commissioner of the Commission for Gender Equality, Lulama Nare, says the difficulty was this case is the lack of a key witness.
"We have been looking into this case and the limitations are that, even for a criminal case, one has to have a key witness. The victims are saying they just want restorative justice and they might not be willing to go all the way.
"For us, we are not encouraging mediation on a serious crime such as rape," Nare says.
She says Jordaan and the South African Football Association's silence casts an aspersion on his integrity.
Jordaan has been silent on this matter for the most part.
At the one public event where he made an appearance last week, he flatly refused to entertain any questions from reporters on the matter.
At the time he indicated that he would respond at a later stage. That stage hasn't come.
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