A cellphone expert is expected to attend to omitted messages in a WhatsApp conversation between Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge and Andiswa Mengo.
This after Mbenenge’s legal team said they picked up discrepancies in Mengo’s testimony.
Mengo, who is the judge’s secretary in Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape, lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against Mbenenge after he allegedly sent her sexual and disgusting messages. The Makhanda High Court secretary was allegedly sexually harassed by Mbenenge in 2021.
Judge faces a misconduct probe
Mbenenge faces a misconduct probe by the Judicial Conduct Tribunal.
The tribunal is chaired by retired judge president Bernard Ngoepe. And he had earlier decided that full public access to the hearing would guarantee complete openness.
On Wednesday, Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, the lead defence counsel, told the tribunal on Wednesday that his client, Mbenenge, was embarrassed and judged by the public over chats that Mengo omitted.
Sikhakhane said Mengo responded with laughing emojis to the conversations she claims disgusted her.
“You said my client sent you a picture of a half-peeled banana, right? And you understood that as him referring to his penis, do you agree?” asked Sikhakhane.
“Yes,” Mengo responded.
Defence questions accuser’s response to ‘disgusting’ pictures
“You omitted that you sent laughing emojis in response to the banana picture that was sent to you. Am I correct?” he further asked.
Mengo agreed.
“Like I said yesterday, you omitted messages that were from you, that do not support your argument,” stated Sikhakhane.
“Yes,” Mengo replied.
Sikhakhane further said Mengo has given a misleading testimony and statement that the person who is not privy to deleted laughing emojis would not know that she responded.
“No, I do not agree,” said Mengo.
Additionally, Sikhakhane said when she sent Mbenenge laughing emojis, she understood it meant it was a laughing matter.
“So you do agree that he also understood your laughing emojis response to his half-peeled banana message as a laughing matter?” Sikhakhane questioned her.
“Maybe it was to him,” Mengo said.
The defence counsel further told the tribunal that a witness who is slightly more experienced with emojis than Mengo will come and share their understanding and meaning of emojis.
Body-shaming pictures
Moving to the shame that his client was allegedly put through, Sikhakhane said he wants to discuss the picture of a private part that was sent to Mengo.
“My client is being insulted because of this picture. Miss Mengo, we need the truth for you and your respondent to be able to move on with your lives.
“You will agree that it is this picture that tarnished the respondent’s reputation and broke his family apart,” he said.
Mengo stated that it is one of the pictures, not the only one.
“It is this picture that you body-shamed my client,” Sikhakhane stated.
“No, it was not this one. You mean the one I said it had hair that looked like the hair on his head? It is not it,” said Mengo, correcting Sikhakhane.
Defence denies that accused sent any pictures
Sikhakhane told the tribunal that it is false that the respondent sent pictures of his manhood to Mengo.
“There’s gonna be an expert that will come here and tell us that there were no pictures that were sent to you by the respondent. Two experts are going to come and explain that there’s no picture in your gallery that was sent by the respondent.
“In fact, they are going to tell you that the screenshots do not exist in your gallery,” Sikhakhane added.
