Momberg is just a scapegoat – Reed Foundation

Support for Vicki Momberg seems to be growing.

For the first time since her case began in 2016, there were a couple of individuals in court to show their support on 4 April at the Randburg Magistrates’ Court where she was due to launch an application to appeal her sentence and conviction.

Read: Police officer fired for racist Facebook post

The leave to appeal application could not be heard and was postponed to 11 April due to the ill health of Momberg’s advocate and also some documents that the defence requested from the state.

One person who was present to support Momberg is Fletcher Reed of the Reed Foundation. Reed said his foundation’s opinion was that Momberg’s prosecution and sentence had a political agenda, where the Equality Court and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) were in cahoots.

Gushwell Brooks of the SAHRC said it is unfortunate that Reed or anyone else would believe that Momberg’s legal fate is as a result of an agenda rather than Constitutional principles as set out in the Constitution and enabling legislation such as the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (Pepuda) No 4 of 2000.

Read: #RootOutRacism: Local schools and business to support Anti-Racism week

“These legal frameworks clearly state that unfair discrimination on the basis of race as well as hate speech based on race is both unlawful and unconstitutional,” Brooks said, adding that strict legal principles were applied to Momberg’s case, principles that will apply to all within South Africa.

Reed labelled Momberg’s case a mistrial. He said he found it odd that the court failed to consider Momberg’s evidence that she acted due to emotional trauma and shock. He said that considering the state that Momberg was in, the police should have immediately called an ambulance for her to receive medical attention. “They [police] shouldn’t have… [been] filming a distraught crime victim,” Reed said.

He went on to say Momberg was a scapegoat and added that his foundation will seek ways in which to assist her.

Reed said Momberg’s case painted a picture that proved how selective the courts are in hearing cases of racial abuse, incitement to violence based on race and hate speech.

Read: #VickiMomberg expected in court to appeal sentence and conviction

An example he used was of a black man, Velaphi Khumalo who also went on a racist rant on his Facebook page, allegedly calling for a cleansing of white people. He allegedly called for black people to do to white people what Hitler did to the Jews. “Why is he not in court yet? Has he been prosecuted? What he called for was far worse than what Momberg said,” Reed highlighted.

Caxton Local Newspapers understands that Khumalo’s case is currently being heard in the Equality Court in Johannesburg and will be following it up.