I said ‘no’, but judge kept sexting me, legal secretary testifies at Judicial Conduct Tribunal

On Thursday, Eastern Cape Division of the High Court secretary Andiswa Mengo told the Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations that Judge President Selby Mbenenge sexually harassed her 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 isiXhosa) was to refer to the Psalm 1, Verse 1, in the isiXhosa 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