A Judge’s clerk who laid complaints of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge testified about late night messages she had received from him, many which made her uncomfortable. Judge President Selby Mbenenge during a tribunal hearing in 2013, before he became a judge. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA
ZELDA VENTER
THE judge's clerk who claimed she was sexually harassed by Eastern Cape High Court Judge President Selby Mbenenge said she endured his late night WhatsApp messages to her, as he was an elderly person and she respected the fact that he was her boss.
Andiswa Mengo told the Judicial Conduct Tribunal that because he is a powerful person, she was afraid not to respond to his messages.
“I was afraid of losing my job as I am a single mother. I do not know what he would have thought if I had spoken to him in a rude manner.”
Mengo took the stand for the second day during the proceedings in which the tribunal is hearing evidence following her complaint.
The tribunal, led by retired judge president Bernard Ngoepe, must establish whether Judge Mbenenge is guilty of any misconduct.
Mengo made a number of allegations against him of sexual harassment at the office and via WhatsApp messages.
According to her, the messages started in June 2021 after he saw her child one day in her office.
He enquired about the child’s father and asked her how many children she had. While she felt uncomfortable by the questions, she humoured him as he was her boss.
She became even more uncomfortable when he asked her to send him pictures of herself. She lied and said she hardly had any as most were deleted from her phone.
She testified about numerous late night WhatsApp exchanges between them, and said if it was not the judge president but anybody else, she would not have entertained the exchange of messages.
Evidence leader Advocate Salome Scheepers, at the start of this week’s proceedings, said in her opening speech that Mbenenge had acknowledged that he “may have been mistaken” and that he had apologised for his conduct.
Thus, she said, he had acknowledged wrongdoing. She said as a married man, head of the judiciary in the Eastern Cape and as a community and church leader, his conduct was in conflict with the code of conduct for judges.
She said he admitted to having engaged with the clerk on social media in a way which was clearly sexual and inappropriate.
Mengo, meanwhile, testified on Tuesday that Judge Mbenenge had asked her early on during their WhatsApp exchanges to delete their messages.
She told him she would do so as she normally deleted her conversations due to a lack of space on her phone, but she did not delete any of the conversations and emojis which they had exchanged, she said.
Mengo said his next messages were five days later and it was mostly work-related, where he congratulated her regarding her work ethics.
While she was happy about this, she was uncomfortable that he directly spoke to her about it, as it would be normal conduct for a judge president to rather convey these messages through the judge she is working for or her line manager.
She also felt uncomfortable about his comments made - some in the form of emojis - regarding some of her pictures he saw on her social media status.
Another comment which Mengo said made her feel uncomfortable was when the judge president asked her whether “she was quick to melt?” She at first did not answer him, but later responded “it depends.” She said she meant this sarcastically.
Judge Mbenenge’s counsel on Monday told the tribunal that his response to the complaints against him will be presented to the tribunal at a later stage during the proceedings.
zelda venter@inl.co.za
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