Singer Jennifer Ferguson offers mediation after rape claims

Jennifer Ferguson File picture: Facebook

Jennifer Ferguson File picture: Facebook

Published Oct 24, 2017

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Port Elizabeth - Singer and former African National Congress (ANC) MP Jennifer Ferguson said on Tuesday that she reached out to a top sports administrator offering a "mediated restorative justice" process following allegations that he raped her at a Port Elizabeth hotel 24 years ago. 

"I need to state that if mediation takes place there is no assumption of guilt," Ferguson posted to Facebook on Tuesday. 

Ferguson, who is a singer and now lives in Sweden, claimed that the sports boss raped her at a beachfront hotel after a function where she performed.

"The levels of rape that have been normalised in our society are damaging to the very fabric of sanity in our communities. The levels of silenced pain in our nation cannot continue without serious consequences. Men who choose to rape women are seriously damaged. 

"Women who are raped are confronted with death and forced to continue living with the memory of their humiliation being a constant experience," Ferguson posted on Tuesday. 

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"A society that laughs at this pathology is betraying its future. We have to find another way. We have decided to formally offer [him] an opportunity for a mediated restorative justice process that would be facilitated by Paul Verryn in consultation with experts in this field." 

The sports administrator has not commented on the allegations, despite repeated requests for comment. 

The allegations came to light last week Wednesday, after Ferguson joined the social media campaign #MeToo, which encourages women to share their experiences and speak out against sexual assault. 

In her blog post, Ferguson alleges the sports administrator overpowered her and raped her. She recalled the night she performed at a dinner hosted by leading South African sports bodies. 

"He was pleasant and entertaining... I accepted his invitation to join him for a drink at the bar, but said I needed to go up to my suite and change from my performance dress," she wrote in her blog post. 

"He joined me in the lift and said he would wait for me. I felt a little uneasy as he entered my suite, but beckoned him into the lounge and asked him to wait there while I changed."

Ferguson claimed that she had entered the bedroom and began to undress, but within a few minutes the sports administrator came into the room, without saying a word, grabbed her and forced her onto a bed from behind.

She claimed that she was "overpowered and painfully raped".

"It must have been over in about 20 seconds although it felt like a lifetime. He left immediately without saying a word." 

Ferguson said that it was not her intention to "punish the perpetrator" but that she rather aimed to bring to light the truth which had been hidden through years of shame. 

She said that during her years of silence she did not have the "inner resources" to take the alleged incident the legal route, adding that she was personally intimidated.  

African News Agency

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