Mbenenge denies sending pornographic material to Mengo

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS DETAILS OF A SEXUAL NATURE.

JOHANNESBURG - Eastern Cape Judge President, Selby Mbenenge, has denied sending pornographic material to High Court secretary, Andiswa Mengo.

Mengo alleged that Mbenenge sent her images of his private part and later, of a man performing a sexual act on a woman.

This has presented a dispute of facts before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal investigating the senior judge for alleged sexual harassment, as he disputes ever sending such explicit content to the junior staffer.

READ: Mbenenge tribunal: Use of emojis and their meaning take centre stage

Mengo accuses the top judge of making unwanted sexual advances towards her between 2021 and 2022.

However, Mbenenge has testified that their relationship was a mutually flirtatious one as he continues testifying before the tribunal sitting in Sandton, Johannesburg.

During a late-night conversation between Mbenenge and the high court secretary on 17 June 2021, the senior judge sent the junior staffer a series of messages which he later deleted.

However, Mengo, during her evidence-in-chief in January, alleged that one of the deleted messages was a photo of the judge’s private part.

How she was able to identify that it was allegedly the body part of the judge president was due to the colour of his body hair.

But Mbenenge has denied this.

“We will sit here until cows come out. We are not going to see this alleged picture of private parts with one standing on top of a cubicle and with white pubic hair, such as his hair(s). I’m at pains to have to talk about these things. The situation is such that I have got to be explicit because I have to defend myself.”

The deleted message was followed by a text from the judge president – it read “bj=?”.

Mengo said she understood this to be a request from the judge for a sexual act.

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