Investigator says he found no explicit male images on Mengo's phone
Digital forensic investigator and data analyst, Francois Moller, appeared before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.
The Judicial Conduct Tribunal in Sandton, Johannesburg, on 5 May 2025, is investigating sexual harassment allegations against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge. Picture: Katlego Jiyane/EWN
WARNING: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS OF A SEXUAL NATURE.
JOHANNESBURG - Digital forensic investigator and data analyst, Francois Moller, has testified that he found no evidence of an image of a male private part on the cellphone of high court secretary, Andiswa Mengo.
Moller appeared before the judicial conduct tribunal probing allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge in Sandton, Johannesburg.
READ: Mbenenge and Mengo exchanged more than 800 messages, tribunal hears
The judge president is accused of making unwanted sexual advances towards Mengo between 2021 and 2022.
Mengo alleges that the head of the Eastern Cape division also sent her explicit content, which he disputes.
Mengo, in January, testified that she received a nude photo of Mbenenge, in which he exposed his manhood to her.
That evidence is in dispute and was the subject of questions by evidence leader, Advocate Salome Scheepers and legal counsel for the judge president, Advocate Griffiths Madonsela.
But Mengo also testified that the head of the Eastern Cape division of the High Court later deleted the image, but not before she caught sight of it.
Madonsela probed Moller on whether this nude photo was extracted from the evidence he was able to pull from Mengo’s phone on the 20th of June 2021.
"This is the picture which Ms Mengo says the respondent sent to her, and it depicts his private parts. Your device that you use to analyse data is able to determine whether messages were received by Ms Mengo in her cellphone. In your software or downloads, are you able to determine any messages exchanged between the JP, Mbenenge and Ms Mengo at 09:05?"
But what was Moller able to extract from Mengo’s device on the 20th of June four years ago, at this specific time?
This is the submission made by Moller before the Judicial Conduct Tribuna.
"At that time, there’s no messages."
However, the evidence presented suggests that there were several messages exchanged between the parties on that very same day.
Moller also highlighted that he could not find it if it was deleted due to the logical extraction method used on Mengo’s device.
The panel also noted that, because of this, the absence of the message is not indicative that it was not sent.