Mbenenge referred to female staff as ‘big girls’, ‘children’, often commenting on their appearance, tribunal hears

On Wednesday, 2 July 2025, giving evidence in favour of Eastern Cape Judge President Selby Mbenenge, who is accused of sexual harassment by court secretary Andiswa Mengo, was fellow court secretary Zintle Nkqayi.

Nkqayi — who later unexpectedly revealed she had left the division in April 2025 as she feared she would end up in a “mental institution” because of “depression” — testified that the judge president was in the habit of addressing female staff as “big girls” and “children”. 

Nkqayi, who first worked as a stenographer in Bisho before being transferred to work as Mbenenge’s secretary from 2020, said the judge president also regularly commented on women’s appearance. 

Asked by Mbenenge’s legal representative, advocate Griffiths Madonsela, whether this was “unusual”, Nkqayi replied “he did this to everyone” and that this was merely his characteristic way of interacting with staff.

It is not clear whether “everyone” included young men or men who worked under Mbenenge in the division.

No questions

Late on Tuesday, after the announcement by advocate Muzi Sikhakhane that his client, Mbenenge, would be testifying after evidence by two court secretaries, the tribunal chairperson, retired Gauteng judge president Bernard Ngoepe, ruled there would be no cross-examination of Nkqayi by Mengo’s legal team.  

Mbenenge has not denied the relationship with Mengo and has insisted it was consensual. 

However, this week renowned gender-based violence and sexual harassment expert Lisa Vetten testified as an expert witness and concluded from the 47 conversations that had taken place that the relationship had been coercive and unwanted.

Mbenenge, she said, had not been able to take “no” for an answer. Later, Sikhakhane suggested that Vetten had been unable to grasp the isiXhosa “cultural” nature of the judge president’s “courting”.

Read more: Tribunal hears Judge President Selby Mbenenge could not take ‘no’ for an answer

Vetten had earlier testified that labour laws governing the workplace sought precisely to prevent the kind of blurring of boundaries between those in power and those who were not.

She said that should a relationship occur within a workplace, it had to be declared so as to prevent a spiralling of possible resentments among other employees with regard to favouritism and various other perks.

Nkqayi’s surprise admission that she had left the division as she had feared for her mental health resulted in Ngoepe calling for a break and for the evidence leader, Salomé Scheepers, to consult with Mengo and Mbenenge’s teams.

‘Girls and their moods’

On Wednesday, the tribunal heard that Nkqayi was in her office one morning when a Ms Gugushe, also a secretary, popped in around teatime. Mbenenge exited his office and stood in the doorway interlinking their offices.

“Ms Mengo was passing by whilst the judge president was having a conversation with Ms Gugushe, asking how she was.”

Mengo had passed by and greeted them all, but Mbenenge called her back.

“He said to her, ‘What is this, big girl? Why are you wearing a curtain today?’ and he went further to say, ‘Do you see how other children are, they are dressed well.’”

The judge president had been referring to Nkqayi and Gugushe.

Read more: Mbenenge’s legal team pulls the ‘culture’ and every other card in Judicial Conduct Tribunal

Missing evidence

Earlier in the year, the tribunal heard that crucial CCTV footage, which would back the claim by Mengo that Mbenenge had summoned her to his office on 15 November 2022 and had asked her for oral sex, had gone missing.

Prabagaran Naidoo, the director of facilities and security at the Office of the Chief Justice, previously entered the footage into the tribunal. He was unable to explain, however, how footage from the date that Mengo claimed Mbenenge had “pointed to his erection in his trousers” was missing.

Naidoo testified that he had been contacted by the Mthatha court manager in either November or December 2022 and had been told that “a senior judge” had requested to view the CCTV footage.

This he had been allowed to do by the control room operator.

However, as it might be required in future, Naidoo instructed that the footage be downloaded onto a computer hard drive before it was overwritten.

It was almost a year later, in October 2023, that he had instructed this to be transferred to a memory stick and couriered to his office. The memory stick contained footage from 14 and 16 November, but that of 15 November was “missing”.

Asked by Mengo’s legal representative, advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender, what had happened to the 15 November footage, Naidoo replied: “I can’t say.”

Rajab-Budlender, at the time, was on record as saying that the judge who had viewed the footage was Bantubonke Tokota, who had made a statement about this.

“Judge Tokota says he viewed footage from 14 and 15 November. He said there was nothing worth mentioning about the 14th because it had nothing to do with the rumours regarding the 15th. 

“On the 15th, he saw Mbenenge arrive and leave chambers with his bag. He said there was no sign of Mengo entering his chambers. But we have not seen that today,” she said.

Judge Tokota had not followed protocol in requesting access to the footage through the court manager, Naidoo confirmed.

The tribunal continues. DM