Judge Mbenenge’s Secretary Testifies in His Defence

Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s former secretary Zintle Nkqayi testified at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal.

• Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s former secretary, Zintle Nkqayi, was called to testify by his legal team at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal.
• The Tribunal is probing allegations that he sexually harassed Andiswa Mengo.
• Nkqayi said on the afternoon Mbenenge allegedly asked Mengo for oral sex, she only left her office for three minutes.
• She said Mbenenge had been out to lunch and to the bank and had then met lawyers before going to give a lecture.

Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s secretary testified at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on Monday, detailing what she saw on the day that Andiswa Mengo claims Mbenenge asked her for oral sex.

The Tribunal is probing Mengo’s allegations that Mbenenge sexually harassed Mengo. If found guilty, he could face impeachment.

Mengo, a judges’ secretary, testified earlier this year that one afternoon in November 2022, Mbenenge called her into his chambers at the high court in Mthatha, pointed to a bulge in his trousers, said “see what you do to me,” and requested oral sex. She said that she turned around and left.

Mbenenge denies that this incident took place.

Zintle Nkqayi, who was Mbenenge’s secretary at the time, was called to testify by Mbenenge’s legal team.

She said that after meetings in the morning, Mbenenge went out to lunch and then to the bank. He returned late, at around 3.30pm, and met lawyers who were waiting to see him.

Nkqayi said that she only left her office, which leads into his chambers, for three minutes that afternoon, to check one of the courtrooms where Mbenenge was scheduled to give a lecture.

She then returned to her office, accompanied Mbenenge to the lecture venue, went back to her office to fetch her things, and left work at about 4.40pm. Mengo, according to the attendance register, had left before her.

CCTV footage of the corridor outside his chambers from the day of the alleged incident does not show Mengo or Mbenenge.

Nkqayi said that the footage did not show Mbenenge because he used a separate door. This door leads out onto a corridor not monitored by CCTV footage.

Mengo previously testified that on the morning of the oral sex incident, Mbenenge had commented on how she was dressed, asking why she was wearing a “curtain”. She said she did not find this offensive.

Nkqayi confirmed she witnessed this. She said this was his “daily talk”, and he would even comment on how lawyers were dressed.

“Even me, he will say ‘haibo big girl, are you awake, why are you wearing your sleepwear’,” she said.

In cross-examination, evidence leader advocate Solame Scheepers questioned how Nkqayi could remember in such detail events that had occurred almost three years ago.

Nkqayi said she had “used my diary to remind myself, generally my brain,” and, in preparation for giving evidence before the tribunal, she had read the affidavit she had deposed in October 2024.

Scheepers asked her if she knew what perjury was and that it was a criminal offence. “I am giving you an opportunity to consider carefully what you said in evidence,” she said. She asked if there was anything in Nkqayi’s testimony she wanted to change.

Nkqayi replied: “I do not have something I believe that I should correct.”

Advocate Griffits Madonsela, representing Mbenenge, asked Nkqayi why she had left the Department of Justice in April this year.

She laughed. Asked by Tribunal chair Judge Bernard Ngoepe why she had laughed, she said: “It was not out of disrespect, but I did not think that counsel would go that far.”

She hesitated and then said, “I did not see this one coming. I could no longer continue working under the circumstances since the [Judge President] left. The treatment was not good. I realised I was facing depression that would result in me ending up in a mental institution.”

Mbenenge was placed on special leave in December 2023 after Mengo laid a formal complaint against him.

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