World
10:15, 29-Mar-2018
White woman jailed for racist abuse in South Africa first
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A white South African woman was sentenced to jail on Wednesday for shouting racist abuse at a black policemen in what was believed to be the country's first prison term for verbal racial abuse.
In a case that also laid bare attitudes that endure more than two decades after the end of apartheid, estate agent Vicki Momberg was sentenced to three years, with one year suspended, for directing deeply offensive slurs at the officer.
Previously, people convicted of the same crime have been fined.
A video clip went viral following the incident in 2016 when the policeman tried to help Momberg after thieves broke into her car at night at a shopping center.
It showed her saying she wanted to be helped by a white or ethnic Indian officer, and that black people were "plain and simple useless" and "they are clueless, clueless."
In her rant, she several times called the policeman a "kaffir," apartheid-era slang for a black person and one of the worst terms of hate speech in South Africa.
Momberg wiped away tears as judge Pravina Rugoonandan read the ruling in a Johannesburg court, finding her guilty on four counts. Momberg's lawyer Kevin Lawlor said she will seek the right to appeal her sentence.
The episode highlighted how 24 years after Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president, espousing reconciliation, it is still struggling with race relations.
Despite the emergence of a black middle class, income gaps remain clearly visible along race lines, fueling perceptions of white privilege. Black people make up 80 percent of South Africa's 54 million population, but most of its wealth remains in the hands of whites, who account for about 8 percent.
Johannesburg-based criminal lawyer Zola Majavu, who was not involved in the case, noted: "It may be the first time... that a person has been sentenced to jail without the option of a fine for such action."
Justice Minister Michael Masutha said the custodial sentence could "serve as a deterrent" to others.
In 2016, a court ordered Penny Sparrow, a white woman, to pay 150,000 rand ($9,941) to charity after she was found guilty of hate speech for referring to blacks as "monkeys" in a Facebook post.
[Top picture: Members of the African National Congress (ANC) sing and dance during a protest against Racism in Pretoria, South Africa, February 19, 2016. /VCG Photo]
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Source(s): Reuters