Vicky Momberg’s last chance to evade jail lies in SCA

Convicted racist Vicki Momberg lost her appeal against both conviction and sentence in the high court yesterday.

The court granted the accused 30 days to file an appeal against the decision made yesterday to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

However, if she failed to do so then she was expected to hand herself over to the Randburg Magistrate’s Court, which sentenced her to two years’ effective imprisonment last year.

She made racist comments directed at the 10111 operators and police officers who were trying to assist her after a smash-and-grab incident she had reported.

In a video that went viral on social media in 2016, Momberg used the k-word 48 times and expressed her hate for black people. She was charged with four accounts of crimen injuria.

South African Human Rights Commission chairperson advocate Bongani Majola said he was pleased with yesterday’s decision and that he had believed Momberg had no case from the onset, as the evidence against her was undoubtable.

“The punishment was fit for her and she deserved it,” he said.

Although Momberg was the first to be sentenced to prison for racism, Majola said that shouldn’t be the focus point.

Rather the country should focus on the fact that the law was finally playing its role regarding people who insisted on being racist.

The accused blamed her actions on “sane automatism”, the condition described in the Momberg judgment as “an unconscious, involuntary behaviour, the state of a person who, though capable of action, is not conscious of what he or she is doing”.

The state said those accused of crimes frequently cited conditions of this nature in court, therefore medical evidence was required.

During the proceedings of the case, the former estate agent changed lawyers six times. The judge said there was no reason to deviate from the current stipulated sentence, hence the ruling.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the NPA welcomed the court’s decision, adding that the accused had shown no remorse.

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