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Racist Vicki Momberg’s attempts to overturn her two-year jail sentence failed on Friday in the Johannesburg High Court.
She now has 30 days to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal if she doesn’t want to continue to sit in jail, but, judging by how many times she changed lawyers during her latest court bid, this could prove difficult.
Momberg’s crimen injuria conviction came about after she called a police officer the k-word 48 times when the uniformed officer came to assist her in November 2017.
Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau said Momberg was “quite evidently unremorseful for her conduct” and that the sentence could not be faulted, News24 reported on Friday.
“There is no justifiable reason to interfere with the sentencing discretion of the trial court in this case,” Mudau said.
Momberg’s court appearance came just a day after another racist, Angelo Agrizzi, escaped conviction when he reached an out-of-court settlement before the trial began.
The Citizen reported that he had these words to say to South Africa: “One cannot read an apology if it is sincere. I am deeply sorry, and I said it in the Zondo commission. Once more I’ll say it, and I’ll keep saying it, that I am really sorry.”
He wasn’t done.
“From my heart to all South Africans, I really apologise for what I said. Even if it was unlawful, even if it was disseminated by someone else, from my side, it should never have happened and I’m deeply, deeply regretful of that.”
With these words and a donation of R200 000 to a foundation, Agrizzi will not be seeing any jail time for his racist slurs, but the majority of South Africans are expected to just forgive and move on.
Clearly, money can buy one anything.
Read: Former Bosasa boss Agrizzi’s hate speech rant costs him R200 000
Agrizzi used the k-word not less than 10 times to express his disgust regarding two men he considered to be business associates.
He was recorded by family members of Gavin Watson, the boss of Bosasa (now known as African Global Operations), which employed Agrizzi.
From what we know of Agrizzi, the R200 000 is probably pocket money for a day at the mall – considering how he has splashed his wealth all over social media and the expensive sports cars he drives.
He is monied.
I accept that payment of a fine is part of the punishment that courts can mete out to people convicted of a crime and that it makes perfect sense for out-of-court settlements to be reached to prevent matters dragging on for way too long.
The question we should be asking ourselves is whether payment of a fine is enough to deter the Agrizzis in the country who continue to impose their superiority complexes just because they are white.
There are many of his ilk who continue to treat black people as non-humans who are only there to serve the masters.
South Africa comes from a very painful past and the continued racism, as displayed by the Mombergs and Agrizzis of this world, does nothing to take the country to a place where we can all say we are one South Africa.
In a book project called Race & Racism last year, the Human Sciences Research Council noted that “the most important thing that we need to understand about race is that it is used to dominate, and to justify, the disproportionate enjoyment by some people, of society’s political, social and economic benefits.
In South Africa, race has been used to justify the exclusion of some people from political and economic power and the creation of a racial hierarchy.
This racial hierarchy was entrenched in legislation and government programmes that denied access to land to some; restricted higher-paying professions to others; and ensured that some were paid more than others for the same work.”
The country attained freedom and the majority of the population were able to participate in the democratic process for the first time 25 years ago, but the road to eliminating racism is still a long way off.
To rid the country of racists, the judicial process must dispense the harshest jail times to deter any person who has an inclination to call another human the k-word.
That way, there will be fewer people using the word and it may soon vanish from our lexicon.
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