Race case flood looms
Legal experts say the courts should brace themselves for a slew of hate crime cases after the precedent set in the sentencing of Vicki Momberg.
Outrage to racism should not be branded as irrational or emotional, says magistrate.
Alack of remorse, 48 instances of uttering the k-word, the degradation Vicki Momberg submitted police officers to and public opinion all combined to earn Vicki Momberg a two-year jail sentence, handed down by Magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan in Randburg yesterday.
Speaking after Momberg’s failed attempt at bail before applying for leave to appeal, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said the sentence was a landmark ruling and would set a precedent for other cases of racism.
Senior prosecutor Yusuf Baba, who put Momberg away, said it was the first time in the history of the court where a person seeking assistance had verbally abused those who wanted to help her.
“Unfortunately, this case is not only restricted to the video footage. The recordings which were played in court were much harsher than the video footage,” Baba said.
“If you take Penny Sparrow, all the other cases, it was a single utterance. Each case is taken on its merits. We are not persecutors, we have to weigh the merits to ask for direct imprisonment and from the state’s side, this case warranted direct imprisonment.”
Momberg is expected back in court on Wednesday to apply for leave to appeal.
Baba hopes the case goes further up the ladder, to the high court, because the judgment only has effect on the lower courts.
Raghoonandan told a snivelling Momberg yesterday she derived no pleasure from handing down her sentence.
“It is, in fact, a sad day for me. The fact is it is inevitable,” Raghoonandan said.
Referring to a Constitutional Court judgment by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Raghoonandan quoted him by saying the duty to eradicate racism and its tendencies has become all the more apparent and essential.
“For this reason, nothing that threatens to take us back to our racist past should be glossed over, accommodated or excused. An outrage to racism should not be condescendingly branded as irrational or emotional. This is so not only because the word k **** r is an inescapably racial slur which is disparaging, derogatory and contemptuous, but also because African people have over the years been addressed as k ***** s,” Raghoonandan quoted Mogoeng.
Raghoonandan took all four counts of crimen injuria as one and handed down a sentence of three years’ direct imprisonment, one of which was suspended for three years. –