Mengo's lawyer questions witness over CCTV footage presented before tribunal

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JOHANNESBURG - High court secretary Andiswa Mengo's lawyer has questioned the CCTV footage presented before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal investigating allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.

Advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender has probed witness, Prabagaran Naidoo, on the CCTV footage in the Eastern Cape High Court.

Naidoo is the director of facilities and security management at the Office of the Chief Justice.

He presented footage from 14 and 16 November 2022, following allegations that Mbenenge pointed Mengo to his private parts in his chambers.

But when Mengo delivered her evidence earlier this year, she could not recall the exact date of the alleged incident, saying it could have happened on  14 or 15 November three years ago.

In December that same year, another judge, Bantubonke Tokota, requested to view the CCTV footage of the same days mentioned by Mengo, a request which was irregular, as he did not submit an application to do so. 

But when Naidoo gave testimony, the 15th was omitted from the footage played before the tribunal, a matter questioned by Rajab-Budlender.

"Judge Tokota says, in his affidavit, he says, he requested the control room operator to view footage of the 14th and 15th of November. The footage that we have here today is the footage of, not just what we view today, but what we have on the device, on the USB, is the footage of 14 and 16 November. So what's happened to the 15th of November?"

Naidoo also testified that it was possible to tamper with the footage but couldn’t confirm whether this was indeed the case in this matter.

However, he could not explain why the footage of 15 November 2022 was not retrieved.

"I can't say."