BL Premium reports that Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge struggled to explain to the Judicial Conduct Tribunal (JCT) on Wednesday what a deleted message he sent to a judge’s secretary entailed, which she contends was a picture of his private parts.
Mbenenge took the stand at the JCT for cross-examination by evidence leader advocate Salome Scheepers. The tribunal is investigating a complaint of sexual harassment made by judges’ secretary Andiswa Mengo, who has accused the judge of sexually harassing her in their engagements on WhatsApp from June 2021 to 2022 and physically. Mengo has insisted the judge president sent her a picture of male private parts multiple times which she deleted it. He also deleted their messages and encouraged her to do the same. Scheepers took Mbenenge through a conversation he had with Mengo on 20 June 2021. Mbenenge on the day asked Mengo whether they could be intimate. She said no. He tyhen sent her two messages, which were subsequently deleted, to which Mengo replied saying, “Jeso” (Jesus). She earlier told the tribunal one of the deleted messages was a picture of a male private part. Responding to her “Jesus” comment, Mbenenge wrote: “Why put it this way? Looks delicious?” Thereafter he sent her a text saying “yours please”. Scheepers asked Mbenenge what he had sent to Mengo. “I can only speculate. Based on what I am seeing here, I could have sent something similar to what I previously sent. I do not want to say I remember distinctly what I sent,” Mbenenge replied. “When I say ‘why put it this way, it looks delicious’ it is because it could have been a picture of a couple that was engaging [in] cuddling or a sensual picture. But not my private part,” he stated. When asked about what he meant by “yours please”, he said: “‘Yours please’, is ‘send your picture of what you would’. All I can say is that I sent something that I looked [regarded] as being juicy. When I said ‘yours please’, I was saying ‘your picture’ within the context of the conversation.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sinesipho Schrieber at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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