Mbenenge tribunal: Witness scrutinises communication between Mengo and EC Judge President

JOHANNESBURG - A data expert has corroborated High Court secretary, Andiswa Mengo’s testimony about texts between her and the judge president she accuses of sexual harassment.

Digital forensic investigator and data analyst Francois Moller appeared before the judicial conduct tribunal on Monday, where the matter is being heard.

Earlier this year, Mengo testified that Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge sent her a series of messages between 2021 and 2022.

The tribunal is sitting in Sandton, where testimony will be given by experts and witnesses as part of an investigation to determine what happened.
 
It was around June 2021 when Mbenenge asked the high court secretary, Mengo, "What if we melt? Which is not impossible."

The messages go on with Mengo telling the judge that he makes her shy.

ALSO READ: Investigator says he found no explicit male images on Mengo's phone

The texts were scrutinised before the tribunal, where Moller indicated that he was able to extract information that corroborated some of Mengo's messages.

"The only difference in the metadata on my report, it's not only giving the hours and minutes, but also seconds for the message, whereas on the screenshot, it just gives you the hours and minutes for the messages. For the rest, I can say that the screenshot messages are the same for these ones that we're looking at, are the same as the ones that I extracted in my forensic report," said Moller.

The panel also noted that Moller could not identify the source of a pornographic sticker that was found on Mengo's phone.

While Mengo alleges that it was sent by Mbenenge before he deleted it, Moller said he could not determine whether this was the case.