Latest news with #Pabasa
Daily Maverick
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Mbenenge's sexual harassment hearing exposes ripples of discontent in SA's legal profession
Behind the scenes, a rift has occurred in the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (Pabasa), highlighting the notion of the law as 'apolitical' as understood by a crop of younger members. Last week, the gruelling Judicial Conduct Tribunal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge adjourned to October for argument. It is then that advocates Muzi Sikhakhane for Mbenenge, and Nasreen Rajab-Budlender for the complainant, court secretary Andiswa Mengo, will argue the case of a lifetime. The public inquiry, which began in January and is headed by retired judge Bernard Ngoepe, has not only laid bare the intimate and private lives of Mbenenge and his accuser, but also choppy waters in the legal fraternity (for it is a fraternity) itself. The creaking shifts in the tectonic plates can be traced in the arc of this extraordinary inquiry, which exposed a chasm between old and new, interpretations of language, the law and culture, and the meaning of words themselves. As the Masimanyane Women's Rights International, the Women's Ikhwelo Network and other women's groups noted in a media statement last week, 'words have power — and consequences. 'We are appalled by the misogynistic and patriarchal statements made by Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge during his sexual harassment tribunal.' The senior judge's 'invocation of so-called 'cultural norms' to justify sexual misconduct is an affront not only to women but to the integrity of the entire South African Constitution and the judiciary,' the statement continued. Rift in Pabasa Behind the scenes, a rift has occurred in the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (Pabasa), highlighting the notion of the law as 'apolitical' as understood by a crop of younger members. As reported by Franny Rabkin in the Sunday Times, Rajab-Budlender, Mengo's legal representative in the Mbenenge matter and a founder member of Pabasa, resigned from the organisation at the end of May. Nine other members resigned at the same time. Dali Mpofu is Pabasa secretary, and former Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba (who was struck off the roll in 2016 but restored in 2019), is its deputy chair. Formed in 2018, Pabasa describes itself as 'unapologetically black and women-oriented'. It is also 'committed to independence, professionalism and excellence in the craft of advocacy and the promotion of race and gender equality'. Its aim is also to work with other bars and the Legal Practice Council (LPC) to address unemployment among young graduates. Attacks by Pabasa members on Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng — who presided over the Senzo Meyiwa trial — and on the LPC had since led to the exodus. Mokgoatlheng made remarks about white lawyers not being late. Since then, 36 advocates have left Pabasa, including the Arcadia and Loftus advocates' chambers in Pretoria, citing the 'politicisation' of Pabasa as the reason. Rabkin reported that a total of 45 members had resigned from other regions as well. Sikhakhane, Mbenenge's legal representative, is also a member of Pabasa and was its first chair. His encouragement of women within the organisation is acknowledged. 'Deep concern' Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi penned a powerful counter to the argument by Mbenenge and his legal team that customary courtship rituals were being rendered 'unconstitutional' by the tribunal. When renowned gender-based violence expert Lisa Vetten pointed out that power imbalances between men and women existed in all societies, she was undermined as a simpleton who had no understanding of African ways. Vetten has been attacked by some of Mbenenge's supporters as a 'Western-paid NGO', which is also no doubt part of the Pizza Conspiracy. Zibi's argument, as a young black African man, as we like to say in South Africa, carries weight, no matter how much some might claim his mind has been 'colonised' or 'whitewashed'. Zibi, who heads the Scopa committee in Parliament, sets out how power relations play out here and in other government spaces where some are viewed as having authority. The kind of deference he experienced was unsettling, he opined, and it took some time to work through these power relations. With regard to cultural impulses that cannot be stopped or controlled, he wrote: 'I hope the Judicial Conduct Tribunal … does not buy this nonsense. 'Yet, this is what Judge President Mbenenge implausibly suggested before the tribunal. This laughable proposition, said with much glee, arrogance and a nauseatingly sexist intellectual superiority complex in respect of the (female) evidence leader (and his own counsel), seems to suppose the rest of us live in the world he has created in his head. 'This is the world where the most powerful individual in every high court building in the Eastern Cape is an equal to a junior secretary for the purposes of random sexual advances via text message.' Zibi also took exception to Mbenenge's insistence on asking for nude photographs even when Mengo had informed him she was not well (as has been testified), and his invocation of culture 'where it is apparently fine for a grey-haired church elder to ask a woman young enough to be his daughter to take off her clothes and send him a revealing picture'. DM
The Sun
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
My Chemical Romance ticket buyers express frustration over crashed website and sold out tickets
PEOPLE who are trying to purchase tickets for My Chemical Romance's (MCR) concert are met with errors and sold out seats as ticketing websites and app suffered a major crash. Many people on Reddit expressed their frustration and dissapointment with the situation. Organisers of the MCR South East Asia 2026 concert in Kuala Lumpur, GoLive Asia and Hello Universe Malaysia announced that the concert has been sold out, with 60,000 tickets snapped at around four hours after sales started on Friday. @Hilter blamed scalpers who purchase tickets in advance just to sell them off at a higher price. ALSO READ: Killjoys' joy cut short by surprise fees despite pricey MCR tickets 'I feel bad my friends couldn't get MCR tickets because of scalpers. Talentless, soulless people flipping seats like it's a stock market. Hope they get stuck with a hundred unsold tickets and a lifetime ban from every venue on earth,' he said. @Express_Yam_9547 said a concert in Indonesia is better than the one in Malaysia where MCR will be performing in a rock festival with other famous bands like Blink 182 and System of a Down. @VapeGodz said his colleague got a call from the event organiser when she tried to buy the ticket. They were asking her real MCR fan questions that were difficult to answer. @Pabasa pointed out that he didn't get a phone call when he tried buying a ticket but rather a multiple choice question about MCR. ALSO READ: RM699 MCR KL concert tickets now RM3,200 – fans call for action 'I got the first question wrong and I was sent back to the queue. I got in line again and and got the second question right before I was able to buy the ticket,' he said. Pabasa said the first question was asking what location was the song Helena music video filmed in. Second question was asking what song has the given lyrics. @mooglefly said, 'i am so upset at this GoLive ticketing system... hopefully (very unlikely but one can dream) they add more concert dates.' Some like @asdfghjkirara complained that they already purchased a ticket but didn't receive an email confirming their ticket purchase. 'Has anyone received an email about their ticket purchase for MCR Malaysia? I didn't receive any email aside from the payment confirmation. I don't see my order on the order history and my events on my GoLive account,' he said.
