Despite the inappropriate texts that Judge President Selby Mbenenge allegedly sent to Andiswa Mengo, he also received messages of compliments from her.
This was heard by the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on Thursday afternoon. Mbenenge is facing a sexual harassment case that was reported by Mengo in 2021.
Mengo told the tribunal that she sent a couple of messages to Mbenenge saying he is cute and beautiful because he had sent her his pictures on WhatsApp.
Questioned by the evidence leader, advocate Salome Scheepers, about what she meant when she said Mbenenge was beautiful.
“I told him that he was beautiful because he was beautiful in the picture that he sent me,” Mengo said.
She went on to say she said that there were a lot of pictures that Mbenenge sent her, including the graphic ones, fishing for compliments.
Picture of a private part
“There are two messages that he sent and deleted; one I cannot remember, but the other one I remember; it was a picture of a male private part,” she said, taking her glasses off as she started crying.
After a moment, she continued.
“I responded to that with ‘Jesus’. I was exclaiming because I was shocked. After that, the judge president said ‘yours, please’,” she added.
Scheepers asked if she had an idea of what the judge president was referring to when she said “yours, please”.
Mengo responded: “He was talking about my private part, and I did not respond to that.”
According to Scheepers, the WhatsApp conversations before her showed that the judge president went back to the “Jesus” response from Mengo and asked: “Does it look delicious?”
“How did that make you feel?” she asked.
“This annoyed me and made me feel like a dirty person,” responded an emotional Mengo.
This person is my boss
Mengo, who works as a judges secretary at Makhanda High Court in the Eastern Cape, told the tribunal that the judge president also asked for her address, which she gave him.
Scheepers asked why she gave him the details of her house, and Mengo said she did it out of respect because Mbenenge is her senior.
“Like I explained before, this person is my boss. I am someone who is junior to him, and I continued to respect him,” she replied.
Reading a text from Mbenenge, Scheepers said: “What if we met?” That is a message that was sent to you by the judge president, correct?
Mengo confirmed.
“No, you will control yourself,” you said, continued Scheepers. “Yes,” Mengo confirmed before she asked for a break, citing that she was nauseous.
The tribunal continues on Friday.
