Mengo removed Judge Mbenenge’s portrait because it was “traumatising” her

Director of court operations in the Eastern Cape Denim Kroqwana testifying at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal on Friday. Photo: Office of the Chief Justice

• Court secretary Andiswa Mengo had removed a portrait of Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge from her office because it was “traumatising” her.
• But when she returned to work earlier this year, the portrait was back up in a lockable frame. She then complained to the court manager who removed it again.
• This emerged on Friday during the cross-examination of director of court operations Denim Kroqwana.
• Kroqwana also testified on Friday that he had tried to set up a meeting between Mengo and Mbenenge in November 2022 to discuss Mengo’s harassment complaints against Mbenenge.

Court secretary Andiswa Mengo, who accuses Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge of sexual harassment, removed a portrait of him that hung on the wall right outside the door of her office at the Makhanda High Court.

This was after she lodged her complaint against him with the Judicial Services Commission.

However, when she returned to work after testifying before the Judicial Conduct Tribunal probing her complaint, which lasted for two weeks in January this year, the portrait had been rehung and secured in a “lockable frame”.

After Mengo complained to the court manager that it was “traumatising her”, it was removed again.

This evidence was introduced during Friday’s sitting of the Judicial Conduct Tribunal by Mbenenge’s advocate Griffits Madonsela while he was cross-examining Denim Kroqwana, the director of court operations in the Eastern Cape, who had been called to testify by evidence leader Salome Scheepers.

The tribunal is probing the sexual harassment complaint.

Kroqwana told the tribunal that the portrait had gone missing, and it was subsequently discovered that Mengo had taken it down. He had told the court and security managers that because it was “an asset”, it should be reported to the police. But that never happened, he said.

Instead, the court manager had sourced a lockable frame and rehung it on the wall. When Mengo came back from leave (during which she testified at the tribunal), she had complained about it.

“My response was that the photo should be up there, that it’s not related to the case,” Kroqwana said. But he was overruled by the acting Judge President, who had commented on the sensitivity of the matter.

Advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, representing Mengo on behalf of the Women’s Legal Centre, placed on record that Mengo had admitted removing the portrait.

“It was hanging right outside her office and was constantly visible to her. She was traumatised having to look at it and could not handle it anymore. When she returned (from giving evidence) it had been placed back into position and that’s when she approached the court manager to remove it,” Rajab-Budlender said.

Kroqwana also testified that Mengo had telephoned him at the end of November 2022, complaining that Mbenenge was sending her inappropriate messages.

During the phone call, Mengo referred to an incident earlier that month in his Mthatha chambers during which, she alleged, he had told her that she should see “the effect she has on him”.

Mengo’s previous testimony before the tribunal was that Mbenenge’s trousers were bulging and he asked her for oral sex. She said she ran out of his chambers. Mbenenge has denied this incident.

Kroqwana said Mengo had told him the incident occurred either on 14 or 15 November 2022.

“I asked her how she would like the matter to be handled. And she said, all she wants is for the JP to apologise and give an undertaking that he would not send her any messages that are inappropriate. She asked that I organise a round table so that the matter can be discussed,” he said.

“She wanted certain female judges to be present.”

He said he had liaised with both Mengo and Mbenenge, but, eventually, the “idea of a round table was off the table” after Mengo released screenshots of their conversations on WhatsApp.

“I should also record that a day before the WhatsApp messages were put up, I engaged a little bit with Ms Mengo and the Judge President, and I managed to get a nod from his side that he is prepared to be part of the round table, but he came up with some terms, that it should be limited to the three of us.

“But unfortunately, before I could convey that, we woke up the very next day to the WhatsApp messages,” he said.

Madonsela said that Mbenenge, in his response to Mengo’s complaint, said another colleague had first approached him, saying that Mengo wanted a meeting regarding two (sexually explicit) pictures she alleged he had sent her.

“I was taken aback. I knew nothing about these pictures. I could not fathom why she would want to confront me about them,” Mbenenge said in his response.

He was later contacted by Kroqwana, who told him Mengo only wanted to talk about the WhatsApp chat messages they had exchanged.

Mbenenge had “dropped him a voice note”, saying he was happy to meet with Mengo, but it would be just the two of them.

“I dropped him a message to the extent that if Mengo may have been offended by the stuff I shared with her, I would be amenable to a meeting to reconcile differences without the involvement of others,” Mbenenge said in his response.

The tribunal is scheduled to sit all of next week.

More about Judge President Selby Mbenenge sexual harassment inquiry

• Judge Mbenenge tribunal postponed after dispute over expert witness 13 May 2025
• Judge Mbenenge tribunal: mystery of the missing CCTV footage 12 May 2025
• Judge’s secretary told a colleague that a “father figure” was abusing her, tribunal hears 08 May 2025

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