No remorse key for Momberg
PLEADING GUILTY, APOLOGISING NOT ENOUGH Public prosecutor says application is fatally flawed.
If convicted racist Vicki Momberg had shown true remorse, she may possibly have escaped her twoyear jail sentence on four counts of crimen injuria. She might also have avoided the order from the Equality Court to pay R100 000 to Constable David Makhondo, the police officer who was the target of Momberg’s tirade.
Speaking to The Citizen outside court, advocate Manni Witz said remorse was probably the most important part of any case when it came to sentencing.
“A recent Supreme Court of Appeal case, the state versus Matyityi, talks about penitence versus remorse. When you’re penitent for something, you’re truly remorseful, and they say when you’re truly remorseful you really have to take the court into your confidence and put yourself into their hands, and then the court can take this into account,” Witz said.
Simply pleading guilty and apologising was no longer enough, Witz said.
Randburg Magistrate’s Court magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan noted while sentencing that Momberg had not shown remorse.
Momberg has chewed her way through at least three lawyers – Nardus Grové, Jenna Clark, and Joe Davidowitz – and is now being represented pro-bono by attorney Kingdom Onah and advocate Kevin Lawlor, who is bringing her appeal against her conviction and sentence.
Senior public prosecutor Yusuf Baba tore into Momberg’s application, saying it was fatally flawed and must be dismissed.
Bringing a motion before proceedings started, Baba said her application – prepared by Lawlor – was a “diatribe of 17 pages criticising the judgment, analysing it entirely incorrectly”.
Lawlor based Momberg’s appeal against her conviction on several points. These included that Raghoonandan had erred and misdirected herself on accepting the evidence of the state in totality. –