Local rapper Sjava has issued a statement, sharing his timeline of the events that transpired between him and Lady Zamar.
Taking to his Twitter page on Tuesday, the "Abangani" hitmaker posted a statement following the news of Lady Zamar's rape case coming to light which was likely the reason behind him being pulled from the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
In the lengthy statement, Sjava says that the reason he remained quiet about the matter was due to him wanting to follow the "legal process". However, following the recent news reports he found it impossible to remain quiet.
He then denies the rape allegations made against him. And followed this by saying that he was not making empty threats with his previous statement about the abuse allegations made against him. He added that he did it to protect himself against the claims which he says are untrue.
Following this, the "uMama" rapper posted a timeline of how the events transpired, according to him.
This includes the "Collide" singer's initial abuse allegations made on Twitter, the serving of legal letters to Lady Zamar's management and lawyers, the police contacting him with regards to the rape case laid against him and the questions he says the police officers asked him.
Read the full statement below:
There are a number of reasons I have not spoken about this matter in public and chose to rather follow the legal process.
Kodwa, it has now become impossible to remain quiet. At the same time, I am only going to share information that is necessary to share due to the latest news reports. It is not my intention to stand trial by social media.
Okokqala, angimdlwengulanga uLady Zamar. I did not rape her.
People are saying that I made empty threats to take her to court after her allegations last year.
Ngithe mina last year I would follow legal processes to protect myself. This was not a threat.
It's something that anyone would do to protect themselves if they are accused of doing something that is not true.
Okwamanje, the only thing I would like to share with you is an accurate timeline of everything that has happened since Lady Zamar first made her accusations of abuse last year October.
- October 2019: Lady Zamar accused me of abusing her. She made these accusations on twitter after the One Night With Sjava show I performed at on 27 October 2019
- 1 November 2019: We sent a Letter of Demand to Lady Zamar's manager informing them to retract the accusations as they were not true. They ignored the letter.
- 11 November 2019: We contacted the manager again to request where we could serve our legal letters . They gave us the address on 12 November 2019.
- 13 November 2019: We served summons for a case of defamation (Johannesburg High Court) of character to her lawyers in Pretoria.
- 14 November 2019: Lady Zamar reported a case of rape in Pretoria.
- I didn't know of this until I was contacted by police on 5 December 2019.
- 5 December 2019: I met with two police officers from the Thohoyandou police station. They asked about the night (in September 2017) that Lady Zamar accuses me of raping her and asked for a statement. I gave my statement. They also got statements from some witnesses who were with us going to, during and coming back from that trip.
- The police told me that I had not been charged and that they were, at this stage, only gathering evidence and statements so that they could send it to the prosecuting authority who would then decide if the case should be charged and prosecuted.
- January 2020: contacted the police to find out if there had been any progress in the matter and they said no decision to prosecute had yet been made.
- 24 February 2020: After not hearing anything further from Lady Zamar's lawyers (after their initial response to the court summons), my lawyers sent a Discovery Notice to her lawyers, so that we could hurry up towards getting a court date for the defamation matter to be heard in court. We had to serve the notices via email after the both the Johannesburg and Pretoria offices of her lawyers were empty on 19 and 20 February 2020. Actually, my lawyers have told me that the Johannesburg address given by her lawyers does not seem to exist.
- 26 February 2020: I received questions from Sunday Sun asking me about the case and informing me that they will publish on Sunday 1 March 2020, the weekend of my next One Night with Sjava shows.
- I chose not to answer Sunday Sun's questions for the article that they have now published for a few reasons, kakhulu ngenxa yokuthi:
- Firstly, me and my team couldn't understand why the police would be talking to the media about the matter when I have not been charged. Because of indaba ze due legal process and fairness, we did not believe we should be discussing this on a Sunday tabloid.
- Secondly some of the questions didn't make sense and should have been asked to Zamar herself. How can I be asked "Do you think Lady Zamar has an ulterior motive for opening a case?". This is a question they must ask her.
- Another question they asked me was "Lady Zamar told the police that you had broken up when the incident took place, can you give us your side of the story?" Njani, when it was Lady Zamar herself who went on twitter on 6 April last year (2019) and told people that we dated from June 2017 to March 2019? She says the incident happened in September 2017.
- Lastly, we contacted the police in Thohoyandou on 28 Feb 2020 and shared the questions with them and they advised that I do not comment. They also advised that no decision to prosecute had yet been made.
13. We are looking at our options regarding SAPS talking to the media/public in light of the fact that I have not been charged and I have not even seen the docket or been informed about anything by the SAPS.