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The hearing on Tueday focused on the interpretation of emoji’s and what they could’ve meant.
Dr Zakeera Docrat testifying at the tribunal. Picture: X-@OCJ_RSA
The hug emoji from Andiswa Mengo showed “agreement” and “warmness” to a message that was sent by Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge.
This was revealed by Forensic and legal linguist, Dr Zakeera Docrat on Tuesday during the Judicial Conduct Tribunal into allegations of sexual harassment against Mbenenge.
The hearing focused on the interpretation of emojis and what they could’ve meant in the context of the conversation between the duo.
Docrat was analysing text messages and the emojis exchanged between the junior clerk and the Eastern Cape’s top judge during 2021 and 2022.
She found that the exchanges between Mbenenge and Mego started off in a professional manner but slowly degenerated with the use of emojis to “convey sexual acts”.
“It started off from the text messages right at the beginning in a very professional, courteous, respectful manner. Sometimes on specific days, that’s how most of the days started, with a work-related discussion or in a respectful tone and manner.
“Then it slowly degenerated where emojis were used to either convey sexual acts or indicate sexual emojis, how emojis were used for a sexual nature, in a sense,” Docrat said.
Evidence leader Salome Scheepers asked Docrat how she would interpret a text message in which Mengo said everyone knew that she and Mbenenge were working hard, followed by a hug and a fingers-crossed emoji.
“This is the first instance where the hug emoji is being introduced, and the complainant (Mengo) is the one who introduced it into the conversation. In this instance, with the sequence of the crossed fingers, the hug emoji together, reads and conveys warmth.”
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In January, the tribunal heard how Mengo was allegedly asked to be sexually intimate with Mbenenge and asked her for pictures.
Mengo claimed she responded to the advances by sending a Bible verse, Psalm 1:1. She quoted from the verse in the Bible in messages four times.
Referring to a text message where Mbenenge said he “can’t wait any longer” presumably for explicit pictures, Docrat explained the “closed eyes” would indicate “shyness”.
When Mengo did not respond, the judge president sent an emoji with “hands on the head” 12 minutes later.
Docrat was asked how she would interpret this.
“In the context of the text chair and no response from the complainant, it would be interpreted as ‘I can’t believe it, not enough, you didn’t send me anything’”.
Mengo then sent a “monkey’s closing its eyes” emoji. Docrat said this emoji represents “reinforcement”.
“Reinforcement because she’s used it more than once, even though there’s no text. But based on the text chain that was unravelling, and in that instance, her shyness on her part, embarrassment.
ALSO READ: Mbenenge allegedly propositioned secretary for sex, sent explicit picture [VIDEO]
Docrat said the conversation started off “respectfully”.
“It started off very respectfully, there was nothing wrong with how the respondent (Mbenenge) began communicating with the complainant (Mengo), nor with her responses.
“The respondent then started sending suggestive emojis. By suggestive, I refer specifically to the closed eyes emoji being used within that specific sequence of the pervy eyes, the licking of the lips. Where the pervy eyes were used more than once by the respondent,” Docrat said.
“Chair, in this text chain so far, we have not seen from the text messages that I saw here, the complainant has not yet used the pervy eyes emoji being sent to the respondent, nor has she used the licking of the lips emoji.
“But we do see, from the complainant’s side, in terms of some of the responses, the winking eye emoji, which can be seen as playful and showing warmth and in one instance and as I indicated, it was flirtatious.”
Thirty minutes after the messages, Mengo testified, the judge present sent her sexually explicit emojis – a guava and a banana – and a picture of a penis and asked for “yours please” with a “wide-eyes” (pervy) emoji.
Docrat testified that the emojis had a meaning of “attractiveness”.
“The pervy eyes emoji, the next emoji is not the tongue out emoji, it’s the licking of the lips emoji. The licking of the lips emoji can be used as a sign to say something is delicious, as we would use it for the function in food,” Docrat said.
“In this instance, preceded by the pervy eyes emoji, it would mean attractiveness, desire, want.”
ALSO READ: Mbenenge sent secretary private part picture and asked for ‘BJ’ [VIDEO]
On Monday, a digital forensic expert testified that there is no forensic evidence that Mbenenge sent a picture of his penis to Mengo.
Francois Moller said he had been given two devices to analyse, one belonging to Mbengene and the other to Mengo.
He testified that Mbenegene’s phone appeared to have been wiped clean of all messages, but hundreds remained on Mengo’s phone.
Moller explained that even deleted WhatsApp messages and those that had been “deleted for all” can remain on a device, but this was dependent on data capacity, and eventually they would be “overwritten”.
“When one deletes an entry in a database file, that entry basically still stays there. It is not as if it is disappearing from the device because it gets deleted. The easiest way to explain that is that entries are marked with little flags. So when you enter the information into the phone, a name and a telephone number, let’s take an example, a green flag will appear.
“So once you start to save new data, the possibility of the new data overwriting that deleted information is there, and the moment that that line gets overwritten, then only the information disappears from the device itself,” Moller said.
Mbenenge is accused of sexually harassing Mengo after he sent her a series of WhatsApp messages of a sexual nature, accompanied by unsolicited “crude pictures,” some of which depicted people having sex, which she said he later deleted.
After hearing all the evidence, the tribunal will decide whether to recommend to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) that Mbenenge is guilty of gross misconduct – a finding that could lead to his impeachment.
While Mbenenge has admitted to “consensual” conversations with Mengo, he has vehemently denied sending sexually explicit pictures to her.
ALSO READ: Mengo admits she had opportunity to tell Mbenenge the kind of relationship she wanted
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