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Mbenenge’s future hangs in the balance as the Judicial Conduct Tribunal continued looking into allegations of sexual harassment.
Forensic analyst Francois Moller was called to testify stand evidence leader Salome Scheepers. Picture: X/@OCJ_RSA
The Judicial Conduct Tribunal looking into allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge heard there is no forensic evidence that he sent a picture of his penis to a junior clerk.
Mbenenge’s future hangs in the balance as the tribunal continues looking into the allegations.
On Monday, damning testimony from a digital forensic expert confirmed phone-based communication between the judge and his accuser judges’ secretary Andiswa Mengo.
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.
The Tribunal recommenced from 5 May and will continue until 16 May 2025 at the Capital Hotel, Empire, Sandton, Johannesburg, where proceedings were first held in January, when Mengo underwent eight days of cross-examination.
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.
ALSO READ: Mbenenge allegedly propositioned secretary for sex, sent explicit picture [VIDEO]
During Monday’s proceedings, digital forensic analyst Francois Moller was called to testify by evidence leader Salome Scheepers.
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 said there is no evidence that Mbenenge sent a picture of his penis to a junior clerk.
The screengrab appeared to be “cropped” in that it did not contain a date or any other information, just the time of 9:05 am.
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.
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Mengo had previously provided a “screengrab” of the photo of a penis, allegedly sent to her by Mbenenge. She said that she had received it on 20 June 2021, before Mbenenge deleted it.
Mengo claimed she responded to the advances by sending a Bible verse, Psalm 1, Verse 1, in the Xhosa Bible, which begins with the word “hai” (no). She quoted from the verse in messages four times.
However, 30 minutes after the messages, Mengo testified, he 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” emoji.
Under cross-examination, Griffiths Madonsela, the advocate acting for Mbenenge, said that while the screengrab showed no date, it did show the time, GroundUp reported.
Griffiths asked Moller to use his software to determine if any message was exchanged between Mbenenge and Mengo on any date at 9:05 am.
After doing the search, Moller said there were no matches.
“At the time of my investigation, it was not there anymore,” he said.
While Mbenenge has admitted to “consensual” conversations with Mengo, he has vehemently denied sending sexually explicit pictures to her.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Woman found EC Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s requests for pictures ‘annoying’
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