A judicial conduct tribunal into allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge heard evidence on Wednesday that he had sent pictures and WhatsApp stickers, later deleted, to judges’ secretary, Andiswa Mengo, including one of “his private part."”
Wednesday was the third day of the tribunal — the first time a judge has faced possible impeachment for sexual harassment — and the third day that Mengo testified. Mbenenge has denied that their interactions were unwanted and unwelcome by her. Though some of the WhatsApp messages between the two are admitted by the judge president, the pictures Mengo testified about on Wednesday morning are “in dispute”, said evidence leader Salome Scheepers.
Mengo said she did not remember the content of all the deleted messages, but the third one was a picture “of his private part, with hair exactly the same colour [as the hair] on his head”. It was followed by a message: “BJ = ?” Mengo said she understood “BJ” to mean oral sex.
After Scheepers referred Mengo to her initial written complaint, where the other deleted messages were referred to, Mengo said the others were “stickers” that she had saved to her favourites on WhatsApp. Scheepers asked if it was correct that the stickers were “quite explicit” and “of a pornographic nature”. This was correct, said Mengo. She said these were sent to her by Mbenenge. She had not downloaded the stickers from the internet or had received stickers like these from anyone else.
She said the pictures made her feel like “a cheap woman with no dignity”.
Scheepers then returned to the trail of messages between Mbenenge and Mengo and said he had messaged her at 12.52am an emoji of an ear with a hearing aid. She had replied at 3.51am that she was getting ready to go to work.
Mengo faced questions from both Scheepers and the tribunal’s chair, retired Gauteng judge president Bernard Ngoepe, about why she felt it was necessary to exchange messages with him so early in the morning. She said she did not have a reason.
Mengo was also questioned on an answer she gave during their early morning exchange to a message from Mbenenge that said: “Ndi wrong-o? (am I wrong?)” to which she answered: “Tuuuuu.” There was some debate about the meaning of “tuuuu”, with Mengo saying it meant “no”, but Mbenenge’s team interjected to say the correct translation for “tuuuuu” is “not at all.” At the beginning of the day, Ngoepe had said that if anyone had a concern about the way words were being translated, they should interject.
Mengo said when she had said “tuuuuu”, it was not in answer to Mbenenge’s question about whether he was wrong, but was answering previous messages in the trail. Mbenenge’s counsel, Muzi Sikhakhane SC, said the “tuuuuu” was in response to Mbenenge’s question, but he would address that in cross-examination.
She also faced questions about later messages that the judge president had sent her and then deleted, to which she had responded: “You write and delete, but you know I am busy.” When Mengo said she had wanted to see his deleted messages, Scheepers asked why: “When you think about the history of the types of messages he sent you, why did you want to see them?” Mengo first responded that without seeing the messages, she would not be able to tell what his intentions were, but when pressed, she said she did not have an answer.
As Wednesday’s proceedings drew to a close, the tribunal heard that Mengo had requested to meet Mbenenge face to face because, she testified, she wanted to tell him to his face that she did not like all these things he had said to her before. Asked why she did not just say so on WhatsApp, Mengo said: “It was not going to be the first time of me using the word no.” She had realised the right way would be for her to tell him in person, she said.
But in the same exchange, she had commented: “Ucute lonto (you are so cute),” to a photo Mbenenge had sent of himself. Asked by Scheepers why she felt she needed to reply to the photo, she said: “I do not have an answer I can give you.”
The hearing continues on Thursday. Mbenenge’s version is still to be put before the tribunal, and his counsel is still to cross-examine Mengo.
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