JSC official helped Mengo draft her complaint against Mbenenge, tribunal hears

JOHANNESBURG - The Judicial Conduct Tribunal investigating claims of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge has heard that an official from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) assisted high court secretary, Andiswa Mengo, draft her complaint against the judge.

Mengo has accused the judge president of making unwanted sexual advances towards her between 2021 and 2022 and laid her official complaint at the Office of the Chief Justice in 2023.

But the assistance she received from Kutlwano Moretlwa, the former secretary in the JSC, has been the subject of interrogation before the tribunal currently sitting in Sandton, Johannesburg.

The provisions of the Judicial Service Commission Act have been thrust in the spotlight before the hearings of the Judicial Conduct Tribunal currently underway.

According to the act, parties lodge complaints with the JSC, which then refers the matter to the Judicial Conduct Committee, which then considers whether there's a prima facie case for which the judge must answer and will make its recommendation known to the JSC.

But Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane probed Moretlwa on the role she played in the complaint that she would later be tasked with receiving.

Sikhakhane: "Did she tell you that she needed legal representation and that you would have to play that role? In fact, I'm correct that it's not your job to be the legal representative of any complainant that comes because it would be unfair you ended up typing the complaint of a complainant that must submit it to yourself."

Moretlwa: "That is correct, counsel."

But Moretlwa testified that she provided substantial help to Mengo when she was too emotional to type the complaint herself in December 2022.

Sikhakhane asserted that the only role Moretlwa was meant to play was only to explain the process of laying a grievance.