Mbenenge tribunal: Witness grilled on explicit content she received from Mengo

JOHANNESBURG - Retired Judge President Bernard Ngoepe asked Judge’s secretary Ntomboxolo Jobela why she could not disclose to the tribunal when she received explicit content from High Court secretary Andiswa Mengo.

The tribunal on Thursday heard testimony from Jobela that Mengo sent her some of the salacious material she had allegedly received from Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge, but when probed on the details around this, Jobela could not remember.

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Jobela is one of the staff at the division of the High Court whom Mengo confided in after she posted her conversations with the judge president on her WhatsApp status.

But Ngoepe questioned why she could not remember a crucial detail, given that the content of such nature is not one she regularly receives.

“I’m just surprised that while I could understand you not being able to give us the date on which you received them, while you may not even be able to give us the month in which you received them, but surely not even the year in which you received such extraordinary pictures? Not even a year? How is that possible?”

With the assistance of interpreter Lungi Ngaphi, Jobela said she would like to avoid giving inaccuracies in her testimony.

“I think the reason why I’m not able to recall the details of the date, month, and year is because I was very shocked and another reason is not wanting to estimate as to the period or time or dates, avoiding giving a wrong time frame.”