Momberg’s appeal for racist rant conviction postponed
Two years in jail for using k-word at cops 48 times
Convicted racist estate agent Vicki Momberg is appealing her crimen injuria conviction and sentence.
She claims the state tampered with evidence, failed to listen to her expert’s testimony, and that she wasn’t in control of her faculties when she used the k-word 48 times against police officers. Momberg was convicted on four counts of crimen injuria last year for verbally assaulting the SAPS officers and 10111 operators trying to assist her after a smash-and-grab incident in 2016. The presiding magistrate in the Randburg magistrate’s court sentenced Momberg to an effective two years in prison for the crimes, although after a short prison stay she was granted bail once she got leave to appeal. She has now launched the appeal at the high court in Johannesburg. Yesterday, before a panel of judges Viwe Notshe and Willem van der Linde, Momberg was initially set to represent herself after her previous lawyer dropped her as a client late last year.
Two other legal representatives have also withdrawn, claiming they had difficulty working with her. Yesterday, she entered the courtroom and began heckling the former prosecutor, Yusuf Baba, who had arrived to monitor the appeal case. In earshot of journalists, she told Baba she had spoken with his neighbour, and that he should “watch what [he] says”. Baba was unfazed, which prompted the 48-year-old to start berating journalists, saying their stories were biased and threatening to sue them. Her new advocate Anesh Sukdeo Sukdeo told the judges he wished an opportunity to rework the appeal, as Momberg had put together her heads of argument by herself. The state through Jacqui Drotsky said while it was ready to oppose the appeal application, it understood why a postponement could be necessary. The case was postponed to June.
In her written heads of argument, Momberg tried to argue that the evidence presented to the court, namely videos and audio recordings of her shouting at police in person and on the phone, were not proven as authentic, and could have been tampered with. However, in the state’s responding written arguments, Drotsky recalled the testimony of Ramasela Mmamolomo on behalf of 10111 that the police phone line’s voice logger accurately records all complaints called in. The logger showed the recording was legitimate and linked to her cellphone number. “The authenticity of these recordings were never placed into dispute,” she wrote. Momberg also argued that the magistrate’s court failed to fully take her own expert’s testimony into account.
She had called a doctor to say she was not aware of her actions at the time.