8 May 2025
Gqeberha High Court secretary Ntomboxolo Brenda Jobela testified at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal that Andiswa Mengo had said a judge was abusing her. Photo: Office of the Chief Justice
Judge’s secretary Andiswa Mengo sent a colleague three pictures — including one of a man’s penis — telling her that she was being abused by a judge, “an old man, a father figure”, who had children the same age as her, the Judicial Conduct Tribunal heard on Thursday.
The tribunal is probing Mengo’s allegations that Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge sexually harassed her.
Gqeberha High Court secretary Ntomboxolo Brenda Jobela told the tribunal that Mengo had not named the judge.
“There was a message where she stated that she told him he is getting too familiar with me and that she was not that type of woman.
“I asked her who sent these pictures to her. She said she would tell me when we meet.”
Jobela said she later asked Mengo: “Is this JP who is sending you these things?”, to which Mengo replied: “You do not disappoint.”
Jobela said one of the pictures was a screenshot of a “male organ”, another was a picture seemingly downloaded from the internet of a naked white couple, and a third was of a leg, covered with dark striped pants. A pointy shoe was visible.
She said it had been taken in an office which she later recognised as Mbenenge’s office at the Makhanda High Court.
Mengo alleges that the Judge President harassed her in a series of WhatsApp exchanges between them in which he used sexually explicit emojis.
She says this was unwanted attention.
Mbenenge, however, claims Mengo’s own messages show that she was a willing participant.
He denies that he sent her a picture of his penis or asked her for oral sex in his chambers.
A forensic analyst has already testified before the tribunal that no evidence of the “penis picture” could be found on Mengo’s cellphone.
Cross-examined by Mbenenge’s advocate Griffiths Madonsela, Jobela said that she was only confirming that Mengo had sent the pictures to her.
While she could not confirm the date, she conceded it could have been in late November 2022.
Madonsela pointed out that in her evidence, Mengo had claimed Mbenenge had sent her the penis picture in May that year. Madonsela asked Jobela if Mengo had, in the intervening six months, ever mentioned the incident to her. Jobela said Mengo had not.
Cross-examination is expected to continue on Friday.
Earlier in the proceedings on Thursday, Abongile Tshete, a judge’s secretary based in Makhanda, told the tribunal that Mbenenge had asked him to approach Mengo — who was a friend and colleague — to set up a meeting to discuss her allegations, which she had by then made public.
Tshete was visibly uncomfortable during his testimony, something raised at the end of his evidence by tribunal chair, retired Judge President Bernard Ngoepe.
“I assume that you did not particularly enjoy giving evidence in this case because of its nature. And for that I must thank you again for your time,” Judge Ngoepe said.
Tshete said one weekend, Mengo had posted screenshots of conversations she had had with the Judge President on her WhatsApp “status”.
“I contacted her because I wanted to know what was happening exactly,” he said.
She had answered, “This is simply because you don’t believe me when I speak to you.”
Asked by evidence leader Advocate Salome Scheepers if Mengo had ever discussed the issue with him before, he said she had not.
But, he said, her message was “in the plural”, so it was not necessarily directed at him as an individual.
He said he could not make out the posted conversations because Mengo’s responses had been deleted.
Tshete said a few months later, Mbenenge had called him about his own judge’s outstanding judgments.
“It was during Covid and he did not sound well. I jokingly asked him if he had Covid. He said he was not well because of what Mengo did, posting these things, and now it had become part of the public domain and it was affecting his health.
“I asked him if he had tried to speak to her. He said he had tried to call her but unfortunately she had blocked him.”
Tshete said Mbenenge knew he was friends with Mengo and asked him to ask her if she would meet to discuss the things she had posted “that has his name in them”.
“He said I should inform her that the venue will be neutral and she could choose where to meet and who she would like to have as part of the meeting because he did not want to meet with her alone.
“I immediately telephoned Mengo and told her what he had said. I offered, as a friend, to go with her. Then she informed me that at that particular time, she was not ready to face the JP. She is going to think about it.”
He said he had never heard that any meeting had taken place.