Gareth Cliff has found himself trending after a woman revealed some disturbing encounters with the radio DJ at a club. In light of the recent rape saga involving DJ Fresh and Euphonik, many other women have been opening up about their own experiences with sexual assault.
One woman has brought the spotlight to Gareth Cliff's direction and caused a whole can of worms to open.
The woman with the Twitter handle @FemalePencil, alleges that the radio DJ tried kissing her at a club years ago when she was only 15 years old. Now even though this reeks of pedophilia, many are very much divided over the fact that a 15 year old was at a club drinking.
What many try to do away from, is shifting the blame away from the abuser and painting the victim in a negative light. Even though clubs and such spaces are not for under aged kids, what many are battling to understand is why would he continue making sexual advances even after the young child informed him of her age.
Her tweets are but an allegation and he has not addressed any of this, however it opened up a whole can of worms and social media is having a field day. A tweep said, "We’ll also have the conversation about Gareth Cliff and his many allegations." Under the tweet, Female Pencil then responded, "He kissed my friend at a club after buying us lots of drinks (we told him when we first met that we were 15...but he didn't care)"
He kissed my friend at a club after buying us lots of drinks (we told him when we first met that we were 15...but he didn't care 🙃) https://t.co/sjzxKU7kZO
After getting attacked for revealing such information about the DJ, she further said that he tried to take them to his hotel room, after repeatedly telling him that they are just 15-year-olds, "What makes it ok for a grown, influential man think it's ok to pay 15 year olds with alcohol and then kiss them and try convince them to go to his hotel with him???? Why aren't you asking that question?"
Tweeps were then taken back to Gareth's shenanigans where he spiked Mara Louw's drink on Idols in 2016. She then started swearing on live TV but she had no idea what has happened to her. Her reputation got tarnished and it was all thanks to Gareth who admitted it.
In his book, the Cliffhanger he writes, "The vodka incident was one of the more memorable Marah moments. It's not common practice to have a drink on set, but that evening one of the crew brought a bottle of vodka for a pre-show celebratory drink. I passed Marah her drink and all was well until halfway through the show when she became a touch emotional, or maybe delirious. Needless to say, the press had a field day and I was the one Marah threw under the bus during a radio interview the next day."
Defending himself, Cliff told Sunday Times that he had no "beef" with Louw:
"I don't hate Marah. That night I drove her home, made sure she got into her house safely and then went back to collect my car and drove home. Nobody tells that story. I loved her, she was like our mama on the show and she'd tell the most hysterical stories and she was great and then she spun out that one night and now it's everybody else's fault. I had no beef with her up to the very end, I was one of the people who still called her after the show ended."
