Woman to serve 6 months for K-word

Court says six months is fair

Marie Basson, the woman who was sentenced to six months in jail for calling a black woman a “k@$&r bitch” during an altercation at a supermaket has failed in her bid to stay out of prison.

Johannesburg high court judges Greg Wright and Thifhelimbilu Mudau have found that the six-month sentence imposed on Basson, 41, was not excessive.

The judges rejected Basson’s leave to appeal her conviction.

Four years ago Basson was accused of calling Nomsa Masuku

a “k@#$%r bitch” and saying she had a “fat arse” and should go to the gym in an altercation at the Birch Acres Pick n Pay in Kempton Park.

She was charged with crimen injuria, the crime of unlawfully and intentionally injuring, insulting or impairing the dignity of another.

Crucially, Basson refused to admit or apologise for the language she was convicted of using against Masuku.

According to Masuku, Basson was standing at a till with her three-year-old daughter when she asked the little girl if she could pass her to get to the kiosk.

Basson claimed that Masuku had bumped her and her daughter while trying to pass them as she was unpacking her groceries from a trolley.

Masuku testified that Basson then turned around and said: “Where the hell do you think you will pass?”

She said she responded by apologising and saying she would only try to walk through if there was a space.

Basson claimed she had asked Masuku to apologise to her daughter for bumping her but she did not.

A cashier who witnessed the altercation testified that she had heard Masuku apologising.

Basson responded to her apology with the words: “You have got a big fat arse”, raising two fingers in the air and telling Masuku “F**k you”.

Masuku said she responded: by saying: “You too”.

She said she was crying and felt embarrassed because everyone was looking at her.

Basson admitted she told Masuku: “You bump people because you have a big fat arse.”

Masuku then told her that white people like her shouldn’t shop where black people shop.

The fight continued in the parking lot, where Masuku said Basson told her in front of her daughter: “You are a k ***** r bitch, a k ***** r bitch with a big fat arse. You should go to a gym.”

Basson denied in her testimony that she referred to Masuku as a “k ***** r bitch”.

Masuku said she followed Basson out of the parking lot to her home, where she took down her address and car registration details and then reported the incident to the police.

Ultimately, the Kempton Park magistrate’s court rejected Basson as an unreliable witness and accepted Masuku’s account of what had happened.

It was Basson’s refusal to admit to and apologise for using the k-word, which she insists she never said, that seemingly motivated the Johannesburg High Court to dismiss her appeal.

Basson had failed to get leave to appeal her conviction.

Basson’s lawyer, Riaan Louw, told Sowetan’s sister publication, Business Day, that he had not received any instructions from her on whether he should appeal the ruling.

At the time of going to print he was unable to confirm whether she had started to serve her sentence yet.

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You are a k ***** r bitch with a big fat arse. You should go to a gym