Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge Picture: Gallo Images The Judicial Conduct Tribunal has found Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge not guilty of gross misconduct, gross incompetence and gross incapacity. However, he was found guilty of a lesser offence, which will not lead to his impeachment. “It is the finding that Mbenenge is guilty of a degree of misconduct that does not amount to gross misconduct in that he, at a place of work and during working hours, initiated and subsequently conducted a flirtatious relationship with Mengo through a series of WhatsApp messages exchanged between them.” The hearing against Mbenenge last year saw witnesses contradicting each other, as the Judicial Conduct Tribunal sought to determine whether Mbenenge sexually harassed the secretary for the judges, Andiswa Mengo.
The Tribunal, comprising Judge B M Ngoepe, retired Judge-President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Tribunal President, and Judge C Pretorius, retired Judge of the Gauteng Division of the High Court and Advocate G Mashaba SC, as a non-judicial member of the Tribunal, commenced in January 2025. Mengo lodged a complaint against Mbenenge, accusing him of sexual harassment after he allegedly persistently asked her to send him explicit images and also sent him his own in exchange. In her testimony, Mengo told the Tribunal she found these requests for pictures “annoying” and felt that he was forcing her to send them.
She accused him of sexually harassing her through messages on WhatsApp, inappropriate comments, gestures regarding her appearance, and another incident that occurred in his chambers in November 2022. She also claimed he sent her an image of his penis, which was subsequently deleted on the evening of 17 June 2021. The complainant told the Tribunal it showed “his private part with hair the same colour as his hair on his head”.
Read Full Article on The Citizen
