Go fly a kite, Amanda du Pont tells Mac G

Johannesburg – Amanda du Pont’s legal representative’s Marweshe Attorneys, has swiftly responded to the letter of cease and desist that was sent on behalf of podcaster Macgyver ‘Mac G’ Mukwevho.

In a scathing response, du Pont’s attorney’s said that the claims and demands made by Mac G are unfounded.

It also stated that du Pont is not just a survivor of rape, but also a survivor of attempted murder by Molemo ‘Jub Jub’ Maarohanye.

In the response from du Pont’s attorney’s, that Sunday World is in possession of, it read, “Your client has evidently not furnished your office with truthful instructions. It is also apparent that your client did not advise you that he has attempted to invite our client to be a guest at his show. which our client has no interest in doing.”

The letter went on to read as follows: 

The salient facts are as follows: 

5.1. Our client is a survivor of repeated rape and other abuse. Including attempted murder by Mr Molemo Maarohanye.

5.2. Your client invited Mr Maarohanyelo to be a guest on your client’s internet and television show, Podcast and Chill with MacG.

The episode featuring Mr Maarohanye was first broadcast on 1 December 2021.

5.3. During the episode, your client asked Mr Maarohanye whether he had, at some stage. “smashed” our client.

As you may know, this word is a degrading reference to a man sexually penetrating a woman’s vagina.

Your client’s employment of our client’s name in this context and manner was demeaning and degrading to her, in particular. and to women in general.

Especially in an unruly with such alarming levels of gender-based violence as ours, it is unacceptable (especially on a public platform) to employ languages such as “smash” – connoting force and violence – to refer to the sexual penetration of women by men.

5.4. Your client proceeded to laugh with Mr Maarohanye about the latter’s plan to take our client’s virginity (which, for the record, was taken without her consent).

Your client’s conduct in this respect. too, was demeaning and degrading to our client, in particular, and to women in general.

5.5. Your client’s above conduct constituted civil injuria as well as crimen injuria against our client.

It also constituted unfair discrimination as well as hate speech against women.

In contravention of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000, our client’s rights in these respects are reserved.

5.6. In response to the broadcast of your client’sinterview with Mr Maarohanye,our client broadcast a video over lnstagram in which she described her ordeal of rape and abuse at the hands of Mr Maarohanye, and called on other survivors of abuse to speak out or to confide in her. Everything our client said in that video was and is true. 

6. Your client, having willingly initiated a public conversation with our client’s rapist about him having “smashed” our client, now claims to be a victim.

Your client claims, in your letter. Inter alia that our client has caused him reputational harm, and more specifically has “influenced a large number of people to now view and label [him] as a rapist and abuser”.

7. Our client has done no such thing. Any reputational harm your client may have suffered (of which we are not aware) could only be attributable to your client’s own unacceptable behaviour.

8. Your client is not a victim of any wrongdoing by our client. Quite the contrary.

9. Consequently your client will not make the public apology you have demanded, whether today or ever. Our client will also not comply with any of your client’s other demands.

10. You claim in your letter that your client “stands firmly against rape, assault, and gender-based violence and does not condone such acts”, and “has distanced himself from Mr Maarohanye.

This is, however, contradicted by your client’s actions. It is apparent that your client in fact agrees with and condones the behaviour of Mr Maarohanye which condones the sexual objectification of women and constitutes public harassment.

11. First, well after our client broadcast her Instagram video (and your clients thus made aware that Mr Maarohanye had repeatedly raped our client, among other abuses), your client uploaded his interview with Mr Maarohanye onto his YouTube page (where it still remains) – the same interview in which your client is seen laughing with Mr Maaronanye about what your client now knows was sexual violence. Your client has obviously done this purely for financial gain, and with complete disdain for the dignity of our client and survivors of sexual violence in general.

If your client had been serious about his statements, he would have immediately withdrawn the video.

12. Second, your client has failed to apologise to our client, privately or publicly, for having deployed her name in his episode in such a demeaning and degrading manner (and for financial gain), and for triggering a revival of her trauma. This is not the conduct of one who “stands firmly” against gender-based violence.

13. Third, instead, your client has added insult to injury by sending our client an aggressive legal letter of demand – your letter – in which he threatens her with civil and criminal legal action.

14. Your client unapologetically seeks to silence a survivor of sexual violence.

15. Your client may have believed that your letter would succeed in silencing or intimidating our client. He was gravely mistaken.

16. Finally, in your letter, having made his threats, your client then requests a “round table meeting” with our client. Our client rejects this request. We are instructed that, to our client, your client is a nobody. She has neither the time nor the inclination to meet with him. He has intruded into her life, uninvited, by abusing her name for his financial gain. Our client’s only possible interest in your client is in remedying the wrongs he has done, as described above. In this regard, she has instructed us to include you in the legal action she intends taking against Maarohanye. In this regard, the appropriate legal papers shall be served on you shortly.

Sunday World