Investigator reveals no text messages with Mengo found on Mbenenge’s cellphone
Francious Moller testified before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on the evidence he could extract from the pair’s devices after they were handed over to him in September.
Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge. Picture: Judges Matter
JOHANNESBURG - Digital forensic investigator and data analyst Francious Moller has revealed that there were no messages exchanged between High Court secretary Andiswa Mengo and Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge on the judge president’s cellphone during investigations.
This, despite his investigations corroborating some of the evidence provided by Mengo.
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Moller testified before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on the evidence he could extract from the pair’s devices after they were handed over to him in September.
Mengo has accused the Eastern Cape’s top judge of making unwanted sexual advances towards her and sending her explicit content between 2021 and 2022.
The tribunal is tasked with getting to the bottom of the matter and has reconvened for another 10 days in Sandton to continue its fact-finding probe.
The period in which Mengo accuses Mbenenge of making unwanted sexual advances towards her spans over 15 months.
She took screenshots of the conversations and laid a complaint against the Judge President for his conduct in 2023.
However, this was not evident when Moller accessed Mbenenge’s device after it was handed over to him for investigations on 18 September.
According to Moller, he could extract information from Mengo’s phone.
“I only had the one version. I only had the device for Ms Mengo because on the respondent’s telephone, there was no messages that I was able to find between his device and that of the complainant. I had nothing to cross-reference it to.”
However, of the messages obtained on the complainant’s gadget, Moller was still able to confirm that some messages were indeed sent by the Judge President, despite it no longer being on his device.