Secretary Says She Received “Threatening Call” After Complaint Against Judge

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal into a complaint of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge has heard that secretary Andiswa Mengo received a “threatening call” to drop the matter.

• The Judicial Conduct Tribunal into a complaint by judge’s secretary Andiswa Mengo that Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge sexually harassed her for more that a year has adjourned until 5 May.
• After receiving a threatening call in 2023, Mengo says she moved to Johannesburg. Her phone was handed to the police, but when returned to her some evidence against Mbenenge was removed, she claims.
• Mengo insists that she never consented to conversations about sex with Mbenenge.

Andiswa Mengo told the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on Friday that she received a threatening call from a stranger two years ago, urging her to withdraw her sexual harassment case against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.

The Tribunal has over the past two weeks heard evidence that between 2021 and 2022, Mbenenge had sent Mengo, a judge’s secretary at the time, graphic text messages and photos, and made sexual advances at work.

Mengo said that after receiving the threatening call in January 2023, she handed the phone to the police and moved to Johannesburg from the Eastern Cape for her own safety.

When she got the phone back two months later, some of the graphic images sent to her by Mbenenge had been deleted, Mengo claimed.

Mbenenge denies sending Mengo pictures of male genitalia. Discrepancies in Mengo’s account of the images have emerged during cross-examination this week.

On Friday, advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, for Mbenenge, said that while the Judge President agrees that conversations between him and Mengo were sexual in nature, she had always consented and did not tell him she was uncomfortable.

“He will say that the conversations were sexual … but they were not unwelcome,” said Sikhakhane. These conversations were “embarrassing”, but did not amount to sexual harassment, he said.

But Mengo insisted that she “never” consented to conversations about sex with Mbenenge. “I was not comfortable at all,” she said.

Asked why she did not say no to his advances, Mengo said that because he was an older man, she did not think it was her place to tell him “the difference between right and wrong”.

She previously testified that she had sometimes responded in a sexually explicit fashion because she wanted “peace” and felt she had to respect him.

Sikhakhane said that Mbenenge denies that he abused his power in his conversations with Mengo, but Mengo disagreed. Even though the Judge President was not officially her boss, he was still her superior with great influence, she said.

“We are talking about someone here that has powers, who can do anything at work. He’s someone to be afraid of, and he will do it in such a way that he makes you feel it when he is present.”

Sikhakhane said that he intends to call an expert witness to testify on the emojis used in the conversations between Mengo and Mbenenge. Mengo previously presented evidence that she received banana and python emojis from Mbenenge, which she understood to symbolise a penis, as well as a guava emoji, which she took to be a vulva. She also received heart emojis and hug emojis from him. She also responded to some of his sexual comments with monkey-face emojis and laughing emojis.

Sikhakhane said the expert will argue that “no-one can simply assign his or her definition to emojis” and that he will base his evidence on the “universally accepted interpretations of the emojis”.

Also in dispute is Mengo’s claim that Mbenenge called her into his office on 14 November 2022, showed her his erect penis, and asked for oral sex.

Mbenenge agrees that he met her in his office on that day, but disputes what was said. Mengo has corrected previous testimony that the meeting took place on the 15 November. She confirmed on Friday that it took place on the 14th.

The Tribunal has adjourned to 5 May 2025.

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