- On Friday, the Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations of sexual misconduct against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge rejected evidence by a court stenographer.
- High Court secretary Andiswa Mengo has accused Mbenenge of sexually harassing her through a series of WhatsApp messages, including sexually explicit photographs and “stickers”.
- The panel said it would not hear evidence related to affidavits the stenographer made about Mengo, saying they were “hearsay” and about “her sexual life”.
The Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations of sexual misconduct against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge rejected character evidence about his accuser, secretary Andiswa Mengo, on Friday.
While the details of what evidence was to be given by Makhanda High Court stenographer Unathi Sogoni were not made known, the panel, after considering two statements she had given, ruled that her evidence be disallowed.
During argument on the matter, evidence leader Salome Scheepers said comment that Mengo was a “seducer” had never been put to her in cross-examination.
Mengo has accused Mbenenge of sexually harassing her through a series of WhatsApp messages, including sexually explicit photographs and “stickers”.
Mbenenge claims their relationship was consensual. He admits sending some of the messages but specifically denies sending her a picture of his penis or asking her for oral sex in his chambers. Should he be found guilty, he could face impeachment.
When Sogoni took the stand on Friday, advocate Griffits Madonsela, for Mbenenge, attempted to introduce a letter written on 2 June in which he says Sogoni was accused of sending Mengo a “death threat”. But Scheepers said the letter did not identify any culprit.
Panel chair Judge Bernard Ngoepe firmly rejected any discussion of this. He said there had been an agreement that the “threats and counter threats” would not be aired before the tribunal, because they were being investigated by the police.
Sogoni began her testimony by saying she had worked at the Makhanda High Court since 2019. She said she and Mengo had been friends but were no longer, “because of the way she conducts herself and the way she treats other people”.
When Madonsela referred to two statements Sogoni had made, Ngoepe adjourned for the panel to read them. When Ngoepe and the panel returned, he said, “Large parts are hearsay evidence. It is evidence on the character of the complainant and the contents of these statements were not put to her when she was cross-examined.”
“And in a sense, it is technically irrelevant”.
Madonsela, however, argued that it was important to counter the evidence of gender based violence expert Dr Lisa Vetten “to the effect that Mengo was subjugated because of the power positions, her [Mengo] being a “child, secretary” and the JP, the judge and “a father”.
He said he would abandon any reliance on the rest of the contents of the affidavits and only focus on what Mengo had told Sogoni about “relations between secretaries and judges”.
“That is all I need to put on record, on what Ms Mengo understood to be the power dynamics and where power lay as she understood it. That is not hearsay evidence. She will talk about what Mengo directly said to her on that topic.”
He said Sogoni’s version had not been put to Mengo during cross-examination because the issue of “power dynamics” had only “arisen sharply” through Vetten’s expert evidence.
Challenged on that by Ngoepe, Madonsela changed tack and said the issue had been “embellished” by Vetten.
Ngoepe said Songoni’s affidavits did not deal with power dynamics but focussed on “Ms Mengo’s life, her sexual life”.
Scheepers submitted that the evidence was not relevant because “it is not the case that the complainant was a seducer, it was never put to her”.
Advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, representing Mengo, said Vetten was an expert, Sogoni was not, and “this panel does not need to know about power dynamics from someone who has a fractured relationship with Mengo”.
After a further adjournment to consider the matter, the panel refused to hear Sogoni’s evidence.
On Monday, Mbenenge will begin his evidence. The tribunal is expected to continue until Thursday.
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The #JusticeForIndigenousPeoples movement advocates for the rights of indigenous communities in South Africa.
Pitfall Whiskers
Fun South African Fact: The aboriginal people of South Africa are the San and the Khoi.
Starzen
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”