Judge President Selby Mbenenge's emoji evidence scrutinised in sexual harassment tribunal

Sexual harassment accused Judge President Selby Mbenenge’s legal counsel at the Judicial Conduct Tribunal put their own emoji expert witness on the stand on Thursday where he gave evidence relating to Whatsapp exchanges between JP Mbenenge and complainant Andiswa Mengo. 

On Thursday morning, Dr Vincent Mello an expert in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) specialising in Research and Information Science gave evidence relating to the use of emojis as it is used in Unicode (a system for encoding virtually all characters used in computers, ensuring consistent representation across different platforms and languages) globally.

Giving testimony on Thursday, Dr Mello gave a detailed breakdown of the amount of times certain emojis were used between both parties on the WhatsApp application, adding that cumulatively, emojis were used approximately 189 times between JP Mbenenge and Mengo. 

It was Dr Mello’s evidence that, according to Emojipedia, the peach represents “bums”, and the eggplant emoji represents the “male private part”.

It was Mengo’s allegation that both emojis, including a peeled banana, was sent to her by the JP Mbenenge via WhatsApp chat but he then deleted the messages, not before she managed to take screenshots of the messages. 

Further to a line of questioning, by advocate Muzi Sikhakhane for JP Mbenenge, Dr Mello was probed about a picture depicting a male private part, allegedly also sent by JP Mbenenge to Mengo and whether it could be ascertained who sent the message.

Dr Mello said it could not be ascertained by whom the message was sent. 

Dr Mello, probed about whether the parties had used the emojis in accordance with the ascribed Unicode, said: “It is my opinion that with a good number of accuracy they are associated with that. There are two that I want to make mention of. The peach and the eggplant…when you go to Emojipedia, it does also make reference to say that a peach would generally represent the bums and the eggplant, the male private part.”

Dr Mello referenced an Instagram campaign during 2015 to have the eggplant emoji banned in that associated usage. 

Previously the Tribunal heard evidence from Dr Zakeera Docrat, a forensic and legal linguist and researcher, who confirmed that the context in which emojis were sent to Mengo by JP Mbenenge depicted sexual acts.

Docrat submitted that she had, since 2018, researched how emojis are used and related this to the South African context, which is multicultural and multilingual.

Dr Docrat had stated that while the eggplant and peach are ordinarily a vegetable and a fruit in this context they were “used to reflect a desire for intimacy”. 

The Tribunal hearing continues. 

chevon.booysen@inl.co.za