‘This is highly malicious' — Mbenenge lashes out at evidence leader

Daily Maverick

2 days ago

The cross-examination of a visibly irritated Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge finally concluded on Thursday.
Just before 10am on Thursday, 10 July, Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge stepped away from four days of gruelling cross-examination by evidence leader, advocate Salomé Scheepers.
It was the battle of a lifetime for the 64-year-old head of the division, accused of sexually harassing court secretary Andiswa Mengo, now 44.
For this last day, Mbenenge wore a yellow, striped tie, perhaps hoping to inject some warmth into what has otherwise been a bleak and ruthless exposure of his private life as well as that of his accuser.
Scheepers did not hold back. Neither has Mbenenge's formidable legal counsel, advocates Muzi Sikhakhane and Griffiths Madonsela, in defending their client, who has maintained the communication was 'consensual'.
Visible irritation
As a judge, Mbenenge is used to calling the shots and has been rattled by Scheepers's insistence on treating him like any other witness, asking him to reply succinctly and calling him out.
So far, the JP has accused Mengo of lying, labelled her a 'trickster' and even suggested to the tribunal on Tuesday that someone else might have been behind her complaint as Mengo 'did not have the skills to do so'.
'I can't help thinking that the complainant could not have done this completely alone,' he said.
On Thursday, shortly before Scheepers completed her cross-examination, Mbenenge complained several times to the tribunal chair, retired Judge Bernard Ngoepe, that her continued questioning about a specific WhatsApp image 'is becoming highly malicious'.
While it is true, as Mbenenge pointed out on Wednesday, that not every single word or message that passed between him and Mengo has been entered as evidence at his tribunal, the bulk of it is there.
These were messages, he said, which clearly indicated what he believed to be Mengo's encouraging response to his persistent advances, which he has not denied.
Scheepers reminded Mbenenge that it was difficult to track times and dates correctly because his cellphone had been wiped clean, but that Mengo had saved messages.
These were later retrieved by forensic cellphone expert Francois Möller, who had access to both phones during the inquiry.
'I was not there'
Mbenenge has gone to great lengths to prove he was not in his office on the afternoon of 15 November, the day Mengo claims he called her in and made a lewd suggestion.
He said that not only could security log books and his car tracker verify where he was, but a case he heard proved this conclusively.
He then read out to the tribunal a highly controversial matter heard in Gqeberha between the Sustaining the Wild Coast NPC and the minister of mineral resources.
'This surely shows I was not in Makhanda and could not have been in my office on the day the complainant accuses me of this,' said Mbenenge.
What about the footage?
When Scheepers did not relent and quizzed Mbenenge on the 'missing' CCTV footage of the corridors that day, suggesting that his secretary had also not been at her desk the entire day, he responded: 'Chair, that this is persisted and for the 200th time, it is malicious.'
Scheepers continued: 'Regardless of the reliance on the tracker to prove your general whereabouts, this does not say the incident did not occur.'
'Your proposition fails!' Mbenenge shot back, clearly irritated.
'I say your persistence is malicious and I deny what you are suggesting. You can repeat it 100 times, I am not going to change my version,' he said.
'It did not happen, it did not happen! It is demonstrably clear it did not happen!' the judge president insisted.
Scheepers announced to the tribunal just before 10am that she had completed her cross-examination. Ngoepe immediately adjourned the proceedings while a visibly relieved Mbenenge stepped down.