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Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal.
Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge has called his second witness to the stand in the landmark sexual harassment probe against him.
The second witness is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expert, Dr. Vincent Mello, who is expected to give evidence on the exchanges between Mbenenge and Judges’ Secretary Andiswa Mengo, which form part of the bulk of the evidence before the probe.
LIVE | The Judicial Conduct Tribunal resumes its inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge. On the stand today is Dr Vincent Mello, an ICT expert, testifying as a new witness in the ongoing proceedings. pic.twitter.com/E4aeszNRw4
— SABC News (@SABCNews) July 3, 2025
Mengo alleges that she was sexually harassed by the top Judge via in-person interactions and electronic communication between the period of June 2021 and November 2022.
Dr. Mello, who is expected to assess the usage of emojis and the disputed pictures between the pair, began his evidence by explaining how emojis were developed.
“We have Kurita 1999 having come up with what we can refer to as emoticons and these were used to express emotions, feelings in a non-verbal or the non-text manner, non-verbal manner, but then this being part of what we today call as pictograms snowballed obviously to now we know that 92% according to research in the world do use emoji.”
[GRAPHIC CONTENT] Judicial Conduct Tribunal Hearing for Judge President Mbenenge | 03 July 2025
