She Said No, but Judge Kept Sexting, Testifies Secretary

Eastern Cape High Court Judge President Selby Mbenenge faces possible impeachment.

• Andiswa Mengo, a judge’s secretary, says she repeatedly rebuffed Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s advances during a long WhatsApp exchange on Fathers Day in 2021.
• She claimed in evidence before a Judicial Conduct Tribunal investigating her complaint of sexual harassment that he still sent her explicit emojis and a picture of a penis.
• She claimed that a suggestive message she sent to him had been only to “satisfy him” and to “respond in the way he wanted”.

On Thursday, Eastern Cape High Court secretary Andiswa Mengo told the Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations that Judge President Selby Mbenenge sexually harassed her Mengo, that he sent her sexually explicit emojis – a guava and a banana – and a picture of a penis.

He then asked for a picture of her private parts in a message which read, “yours please”, with a “wide-eyes” emoji.

In one response to the picture of the penis, which he deleted, she messaged: “Jesus”.

His response was: “Why put it this way. It looks delicious”.

Mengo broke down emotionally several times during her testimony.

If found guilty of gross misconduct, Judge Mbenenge could be impeached.

While the conversation, on Father’s Day 20 June 2021, referred to during Thursday’s evidence had begun with discussions about work issues and the imminent retirement of the judge that Mengo worked for, it soon turned, with a question by Mbenenge, to whether they could “get intimate”.

Her response (in Xhosa) was to refer to the Psalm 1, Verse 1, in the Xhosa Bible which begins with the word “hai” (meaning no). Ultimately, she quoted from the verse in the Bible in messages four times, yet he continued to badger her.

Asked by evidence leader advocate Salome Scheepers, why she had used the Bible verse, she said it was because Mbenenge was a church leader.

“He understands the Bible very well. I saw this verse as being suitable. This specific verse, starting with the no, there is a comma after the no, and the no is written in capital letters. It was my way of assuring him that what he had asked (about being intimate) is not going to happen.”

Mengo said she indicated to him that she wanted to meet with him “face to face”. She said this was to make it clear that she was not interested.

He, however, asked her, “what if we melt which is not impossible”, and sent an emoji of a man fanning himself.

She responded: “That is impossible.”

He then sent her a “peeled banana” emoji.

Asked why she had responded to this with laughing emojis, she said, “I didn’t know how to respond to him. He is my boss.”

Later in her evidence, she referred again to the banana emoji. She said he had sent her two emojis “which I know to be a vegetable and a fruit”.

“But because I am a young woman of this time and era, I understood the first image to be a man’s private part, a penis, and the second one, a guava, to be an image usually used as the private part of a woman.”

She said when he asked if they would meet in private, she had said no.

He had suggested having a conversation in his office to which she had agreed that would be better.

“I wanted to meet with him at a place that is not private,” she said.

But she conceded she told him where she lived.

“This is my boss, and I saw fit to answer the questions he was asking me. I was mindful of the fact that I am much junior to his level. And I continued with respecting him.”

Tried to end conversation

Just before 11pm that night, she attempted to end the conversation, telling him she needed to iron her uniform. She messaged: “bye”.

But the conversation did not end.

The records before the tribunal show that Mbenenge messaged her twice again, but deleted both.

Mengo’s response to these messages was “Jesus”.

Asked by the evidence leader if she could recall what the messages said, she said one contained a picture of a “male private part”.

He then sent three more messages, which he deleted. But in one, which he did not delete, he said: “yours please” with the wide-eyed emoji.

Mengo did not respond.

Mbenenge then, in response to her earlier “Jesus” comment, asked, “Why put it this way, it looks delicious.”

She had responded. “No, you will control yourself.”

He replied: alright then.

In another WhatsApp exchange two days later, Mbenenge suggested a “quickie”.

Mengo replied that he should remain greedy and lustful. “I like it like that so that when you arrive you will have interest.”

Asked by Scheepers to explain what she meant, given the courage she had shown two days previously when she had repeatedly said no to him, she said she had said it to “satisfy him”.

“He did not take that seriously. This is why I thought to respond in the way he wanted,” Mengo said.

Mbenenge admits sending some of the WhatsApp messages but denies sending others. He is expected to submit that his advances were not unwanted but encouraged.

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