/ 16 January 2025

Secretary alleges Judge Mbenenge hounded her for sex after she said no

Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.
Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge. (Nelius Rademan/ Foto24/Gallo Images)

A former colleague of Eastern Cape judge president Selby Mbenenge on Thursday testified before a judicial conduct tribunal that he continued to hound her for sex after she firmly rejected his advances.

Andiswa Mengo, a former secretary for another judge in the same division, said in June 2021 she decided to confront Mbenenge in person about the inappropriate nature of WhatsApp messages he sent her at all hours after he had gone as far as sending her a photograph of his genitalia.

She was in East London at the time, and recalled messaging Mbenenge that he was making her feel “shy” after he sent her another explicit image, this time of a couple engaged in a sexual act. 

When Mbenenge asked her to explain why, she replied that she would prefer to tell him the reason when she was back in Grahamstown and they could talk face to face.

To this, Mengo said, Mbenenge responded by asking if they “could be intimate” upon her return.

She texted back: “Face each other, not intimacy”. 

Mengo said when Mbenenge persisted she replied that this was impossible, and also sent him a verse from the book of Psalms.

She told the tribunal, headed by former Gauteng judge president Bernard Ngoepe, that Mbenenge seemed undeterred and sent her a message reading: “What if we melted, it is not impossible,” followed by a sticker of a man fanning his face.

Mengo said she reiterated: “It is impossible”. 

She said she eventually ended the conversation by texting “bye”, but more messages from Mbenenge followed which he subsequently deleted. The record showed that she responded to one of the messages by exclaiming “Jesus”.

When evidence leader Salome Scheepers asked what prompted her to respond in this manner, Mengo became emotional before saying: “One of them was of a private part … It was a male private part.”

She told the tribunal that Mbenegne later replied to this image with a message suggesting she send him a picture of her genitalia.

“I was in a position now not even knowing how to respond to him anymore as my boss,” she continued. 

Mbenenge is the first judge to risk impeachment for sexual misconduct. He has denied sending the offending images, and told a judicial conduct committee of the Judicial Service Commission that what transpired between him and the complainant was consensual, qualifying their exchanges as flirtatious and playful. 

If his advances were not unwanted, an impeachable charge cannot be sustained. 

Over four days of public testimony, the tribunal has traversed a number of exchanges where Mengo sent ambiguous responses to overtly sexual messages from the senior judge. 

Although she has maintained that these must be read as literal and devoid of innuendo, Ngoepe has noted that her responses were not clear to him and would be interrogated further in the course of the inquiry.

On Thursday, Scheepers asked Mengo if she ever contacted Mbenenge with a view to meeting in person and she replied that she did not.

“I was not interested.” She later added that she had realised a meeting would have been pointless because Mbenenge would have seen it as an opportunity to attempt to seduce her.

In the days that followed the exchange while she was in East London, Mengo ignored a number of messages from Mbenenge. She finally responded to a message from the judge which read: “You are so quiet.”

She replied that she was busy with a study assignment at which Mbenenge asked if she was studying law. She said this was correct, at which he wished her luck.

Mbenenge soon after initiated contact again. A transcript of their text messages showed, Scheepers noted, that she told the judge he was bothering her because she was busy, and added that her blood was becoming warm.

Asked to explain what she meant by this, Mengo repeated the words several times until Ngoepe interceded to say the expression was ordinarily employed to signal either anger or excitement.

“Thank you Judge. I was angry,” she replied.

But, on June 23, Mengo took a different tack when Mbenenge again texted her and said he was “greedy”.

She replied: “I like it like that, so that when you arrive you will have interest.”

Scheepers asked what she meant by this, and Mengo said she meant that the respondent should remain greedy or lusting. While Scheepers was clearly trying to establish her motivation, Mengo repeated that she meant just what she said.

It echoed an exchange with the evidence leader on Wednesday when Scheepers asked several times why she had replied to a photograph Mbenenge sent her of his face with the comment “cute”, insisting that he had indeed looked cute in the picture.

Scheepers finally asked why Mengo had changed her tone when a few days earlier she had the courage to tell Mbenenge unequivocally that his advances were unwelcome.

Mengo replied that she realised being frank had no effect as the judge continued to contact her as before. She said she had hoped that if she instead responded in a manner that “satisfied him”, he would leave her in peace.

The hearing is set to continue on Friday.