A new witness, Dr Zakeera Docrat, a forensics and legal linguistics expert, started giving her testimony before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on Tuesday in Johannesburg.
She was invited to testify before the hearing on the communication between Makhanda High Court judges’ secretary, Andiswa Mengo, and Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge.
Legal expert in interpreting emojis
Docrat told the tribunal that she has a qualification in sociolinguistics with a background in law. This makes her eligible to analyse and interpret emojis.
According to Docrat, the conversation between the two started off as professional. It was in a respectful tone and manner, as it was work-related.
“The conversation changed as they continued talking, and it became sexual, accompanied by winking emojis. [This] can be interpreted as warmness and flirtatiousness within the context of the conversation,” said Docrat.
She further added that Mengo’s continuous and repetitive use of laughing emojis means she took some of the things Mbenenge said as a joke.
“The respondent [Mbenenge] maintained the angelic behaviour through the emojis. He used the angelic head and praying hands, while the complainant [Mengo] kept using the laughing [emojis],” Docrat added.
Focus on BJ text and response to it
Evidence leader in the hearing, advocate Salome Scheepers, pointed to a text that was displayed on screen. The text said “BJ”, and Scheepers asked what the meaning of that was.
“BJ is blow job, meaning oral sex. And there’s a winking response to messages that have been deleted. So it would be careless of me to make anything of this response. Because I don’t know the content of the deleted messages.
“Perhaps we can say she was in agreement by winking,” Docrat clarified.
As the conversation became more sexual, judge Mbenenge sent a text to Mengo. In it, he said he was going to give Mengo something that he later deleted and sent a peeled banana.
More emojis interpreted
Scheepers asked Docrat to interpret the use of a banana in the conversation.
“Banana is a fruit. But in the context of their conversation, the banana emoji is interpreted as a circumcised penis,” she responded.
Docrat said Mbenenge’s use of a mouth-licking emoji meant attraction, desire, or want.
The proceedings into the matter kicked off on Monday after months of hiatus. The hearing is a result of a complaint by Mengo that Mbenenge made sexual advances towards her in 2021.
Previously, Mengo told the tribunal that Mbenenge used his power to violate her. She claimed he did this by sending explicit pictures of his hairy private part.
The hearing continues.
