Judge president denies sending explicit photos to Mengo

The photos of private parts that a Makhanda high court employee claims judge president Selby Mbenenge sent her during months of sexual harassment had “tarnished his reputation and probably broken his family”, his lawyer Muzi Sikhakhane said.

Sikhakhane, SC, told the judicial conduct tribunal probing the allegations of sexual misconduct that Mbenenge would deny he ever sent these explicit photos and that no experts could find them either on his phone or that of the complainant, Andiswa Mengo.

Mengo said she took screenshots of the photos before they were deleted by Mbenenge, but Sikhakane said his client would deny ever sending them. He also questioned how Mengo would know if the photos were actually of his private parts if she had never seen them.

She replied that she had simply assumed that it was his as Mbenenge was unlikely to have sent a photograph to her of someone else’s private parts.

The tribunal has over seven days heard evidence about dozens of sexually suggestive WhatsApp messages between Mbenenge and Mengo.

Mengo conceded during cross-examination that she had omitted her own sexual remarks from her affidavit of complaint to the JSC.

She also conceded that it might have had the effect of, in Sikhakane’s words, “making him look like the bad one and her the good one”.

She also battled to place exactly when during the dozens of lengthy conversations between them, he had actually sent – and then deleted – the explicit photos.

The time stamp appearing on at least one of the screenshots of the explicit photos did not fit in with these conversations. 

She explained that the annexures attached to her affidavit, including the screenshots, were not in chronological order.

Sikhakhane said this was further proof that these photos were never sent to her by the judge president.

He said it was important to assess whether Mengo was a victim of unwanted and unwelcome messages or whether she had willingly participated in the flirtation.

Sikhakhane accused Mengo of participating in the “sleaze” and variously referred to the messages between the two as salacious and disgusting.

Mengo has repeatedly told the commission that Mbenenge was the most powerful figure in the provincial courts while she was among the least powerful.

She has suggested that when she had responded to him in a flirtatious manner it was to appease him as she feared for her job.

She has pointed to several occasions where she unequivocally rejected his suggestions of intimacy.

Sikhakhane suggested that power relations shifted and that at some point she was the one who held the power. – DispatchLIVE