Judges’ secretary Andiswa Mengo told a judicial conduct tribunal on Monday that Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge sent pictures of his penis to other court officials apart from herself.
Mengo testified before the tribunal investigating a sexual harassment complaint she laid against her boss.
Mengo accuses Mbenenge of making “unwarranted” sexual advances towards her at work and on WhatsApp conversations from June 2021 until November 2022.
Mbenenge has denied the allegations, arguing that the communication between them was “consensual”. He also denied sending Mengo explicit pictures.
Evidence leader advocate Salome Scheepers questioned Mengo about a slew of WhatsApp messages she included in her initial complaint but were not part of the messages that a phone expert compiled for the tribunal.
One of these messages contained a screenshot of a penis, which Mengo sent to two of her colleagues.
She said when she sent that picture to her colleague, Brenda Nguta-Jobela, she confirmed that others received explicit pictures from Mbenenge.
When Mengo sent the picture to Nguta-Jobela without telling her who it was from she said: “Who is this? Is it Mbenenge? He is the only person who sends such pictures to people.”
Mengo said she had also informed her late colleague, Noluthando Kona, about the situation.
Mengo’s conversations with her colleagues were not part of the messages contained in files prepared by experts for the tribunal. Mengo said she did not know why.
The pictures were sent to her colleagues for safekeeping and to inform them of her conversations with Mbenenge, she said. This was not the first time Mengo testified Mbenenge sent her a picture of his penis.
Earlier on Monday, Mengo testified Mbenenge persisted in asking her for a picture of her genitals.
In January 2022, Mengo posted a picture of a tattoo on her back. She said Mbenenge had asked her to “go further down and for the face to appear”.
She also testified the judge president had asked her to “please send a juicy pic (picture) before you sleep”.
Mengo told the tribunal that Mbenenge wanted her “to send him a picture that will satisfy him. He wanted a picture of my private part.”
She said she was frustrated by the conversation as she had told him before that she did not have explicit pictures.
“I felt he did not hear my ‘no’. He did not want to understand my ‘no’,” she said.
Update: January 20 2025
This story has been updated to clarify Mengo’s work title.
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