Sexual harassment allegations against Mbenenge continue to be probed

The Judicial Conduct Tribunal has heard that Judge President Selby Mbenenge interpreted Judges’ Secretary Andiswa Mengo’s rolling on the floor laughing emoji response to the proposition of the pair being intimate as Mengo indicating that she was not amenable to being intimate at that stage.

This is revealed in the affidavit of the top judge as the tribunal continues to probe sexual harassment allegations against him.

Mengo alleges that she was sexually harassed by Mbenenge through in-person interaction and electronic communication between June 2021 and November 2022.

The tribunal is currently going through the cross-examination of Forensic and Legal Linguist, Dr. Zakeera Docrat, who is providing an expert analysis over the use of emojis in the WhatsApp exchanges between Mengo and Mbenenge where Mbenenge’s counsel seeks to advance the argument that Mengo was a “willing participant”.

“And the occasion is when Ms. Mengo indicated to the respondent that she was going to be in East London and there was an invocation of the biblical verse, remember that context in the WhatsApps and more specifically, over the page, at paragraph 6.2, the discussion between the JP and Ms. Mengo, the respondent and Ms Mengo, was the prospect of them being intimate and JP answers that claim in page 150, paragraph 6.2 and he says, ‘when I saw that Ms. Mengo was not amenable to being intimate at that stage, I asked if she wanted mere friendship’. Her response was to send a picture of a woman laughing, followed by a text with three rolling with laughter face emojis, saying she had no answer’…,” says Adv. Griffiths Madonsela SC on behalf of Judge President Mbenenge.

Video: Forensic expert testifies in Mbenenge Tribunal