This Woman Just Became The First Person To Go To Prison For Racism In South Africa

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Buzzfeed News

The woman, the first to be sentenced under South African laws criminalizing racist language, called two police officers “kaffirs,” a highly offensive term for black South Africans.

Posted on March 28, 2018, at 1:38 p.m.
Tamerra Griffin

BuzzFeed News Reporter
Nairobi, Kenya
Reporting From
Nairobi, Kenya



South African Broadcasting Corporation / Via youtube.com


NAIROBI — For the first time in South African history, a court on Wednesday sentenced a white woman to prison for making racist comments, a judgment that has given some hope that charges of racism will be treated more seriously.

Vicki Momberg was sentenced to up to three years in prison for an incident that took place in Johannesburg in February 2016, when she was filmed making derogatory comments toward the black police officers who had responded to her call of a reported robbery. She was convicted last November of four counts of “crimen injuria,” or the use of racially offensive language.

In the viral video, Momberg can be heard talking to someone on the phone about the police officers dispatched to the scene. She referred to them as “kaffirs,” an offensive and derogatory term for black South Africans that was used during apartheid, and which lawmakers have in recent years tried to criminalize along with other forms of hate speech.

. . .

The exchange continued for several minutes — and the clip broadcast on South African news station Eyewitness News appears to have been edited for time — and reached a peak when Momberg threatened to run black people over with her car and shoot them.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/white-south-african-jailed-for-being-racist?utm_term=.mow1dgjnw#.orVnLlMeX

[marble falls]

1. Racism may be free speech, but its not protected speech. She'll get a lesson in race relations if...

she's not too privileged or connected, trying to serve out her time in real stir.

[EL34x4]

3. Every South African is getting lessons in race relations these days.

More lessons are coming.

[marble falls]

4. We need to send millions of US citizens to get their eyes opened. Every body needs a chance...

to be a minority in a majority's culture.

[BannonsLiver]

21. I was there for 2 weeks last summer (their winter)

I found it to be a fascinating, stimulating and all around valuable experience for me for exactly the reason you mentioned, among many others. Problem is I didn’t “need” the experience as much as some whites do.

[marble falls]

22. I got mine not doing the 'tourist thing' in Jamaica. Not two weeks worth but being the "minority"...

in everyday living of everyone else sure opened my mind. I don't think I needed it but it certainly was a good experience.

[BannonsLiver]

23. Yep, getting out of comfort zones is great for anybody

In thinking about that post it occurred to me that could have been worded better. What I meant is the people who could really benefit from exposure to other cultures don't usually seek out those experiences. It's hard to imagine a deplorable wanting to go anywhere in Africa (unless it's to shoot wild animals).

[Spouting1horn]

5. The whirlwind is

coming for whites in South Africa. The land will soon be free and more prosperous than could ever have been imagined.

[marble falls]

7. Kinda contrdicts this doesn't it???

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2024851

[Ron Obvious]

8. There's more than a sniff of the philosslayer troll about this one.

See also the idiotic post #6.

[marble falls]

9. He's drawing attention as well as flies!

[GulfCoast66]

10. Yeah, throwing white farmers off their farms worked out well for Zimbabwe

The land became so free and prosperous.

Because that is where this is heading.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Whites should always control other peoples' countries? I don't think so. n/t

[christx30]

12. If they can make something of it, sure.

But the “land reform” turned the breadbasket of Africa into a land of starvation and death.
If my farmland was stolen from me, I’d sabotage the equipment before I left. I sure as hell wouldn’t help the thieves.

[Judi Lynn]

14. If they can use it, they should take it? Of course not.

Right, truth, racism are clear for all to see, regardless of attempts to obfuscate.

Everyone knows that, including those who believe they can still defend the indefensible.

[GulfCoast66]

13. Nice strawman you built there

Is there anything factually incorrect about my statement?

South Africa is a wreck due to one party incompetent governance.

And to hold onto power which they are in real danger of losing, they are ginning up remnant and even justified anger against a minority.

And their is no longstanding tradition of the rule of law in South Africa to prevent them from straight up pulling a Zimbabwe.

If they do so, the results will be the same.

[Nonhlanhla]

16. Other people's countries?

Whites have been in SA for centuries. They are South African.

[Ron Obvious]

18. In fact they've been there longer than the majority of the black population there now.

I suspect that most people cheering the land grabs can't see past skin colour and know nothing about the history of South Africa or the tribes that used to live there. To them black = black regardless of tribe. Which would make them rather ignorant racists themselves.

[Queen of the Iceni]

26. True words. So many people are ignorant of SA history and are proving to be ignorant racists..

The land grabs are frightening indeed and will be disastrous for SA.

[Spouting1horn]

6. Speech

Speech offensive to minorities should never be protected.

[Codeine]

15. You are not nearly as cute as you think you are.

Do go away; the adults are talking.

[JI7]

2. "threatened to run black people over with her car and shoot them."

That's a threat.

[Nonhlanhla]

17. Yes, she threatened them.

And her language was vile, especially given the historical context, which makes her language incredibly offensive. She most certainly deserved serious punishment - I would have thought some months imprisonment and some community service, for example. But there were complex circumstances - she was also traumatized at the time - in shock after being the victim of crime. There were both racial and gender aspects to the whole situation - imagine the fright of a woman being attacked by men, now add SA's insane race situation to the mix (the fear of whites of the majority black population is high, especially in urban areas like Jo'burg, and especially in light of kill-the-whites rhetoric coming from the likes of Malema), and you have a recipe for disaster. What she did cannot be justified, but to punish someone who is suffering from shock and acting out in a verbal manner (not even a physical manner) with 2 years effective imprisonment seems a bit over the top. She's certainly the last person in the world I want to defend, but the whole situation is quite complex here.

Let me make clear: she deserved punishment. That kind of language is unacceptable. I'm not sure if the punishment fits the crime.

[MosheFeingold]

19. The issue is the double standard

She's a horrid person, but apparently there are blacks there who say just as vile things (including on TV) who are not prosecuted.

Selective prosecution based on race is a bad thing.

While I have little sympathy toward many white South Africans, what will happen next is ethnic cleansing of all white South Africans, including the ones who were instrumental in bringing about equality.

Group guilt and punishment is seldom, if ever, just or right.

[Nonhlanhla]

20. One can only hope

that her sentencing will be the start of the government cracking down on ALL hatemongers of any race in SA. The ANC's official doctrine of non-racialism would demand that, but whether that still reflects the wishes of the black community is unclear, as some of have turned away from the spirit of Mandela, which they blame for the slow rate of economic change in SA. Most South Africans of all races are well-meaning and want nothing but peace with each other. But there are still some whites who harbor racism, and if anything, that has intensified in the 24 years since the end of apartheid, as frustrations with affirmative action, land "appropriation," etc., have, in their minds, affirmed their fears of black rule (I'm not suggesting that their perceptions are justified, but they are nevertheless real). At the same time the black population is increasingly frustrated by the fact that most black people still live in abject poverty 24 years after apartheid, crime rates are high, and land reform has not taken place at sufficient levels. What concerns me is the increase in genocidal rhetoric that I'm picking up in social media, with black South Africans speaking of "cleansing the land," chasing the whites into the sea, or "slicing open the throat of white supremacy" - while the latter is a metaphor, the imagery is disturbing (thanks, Julius Malema). I studied the Rwanda genocide some years ago, and that kind of language preceded the genocide there. My hope is that the ANC leadership under Pres. Ramaphosa will have the wisdom to bring the country back to an era of hope - Mandela cannot return, but it is essential that his spirit, and not that of Zuma or Malema, should rule the day.

[LanternWaste]

24. You'll provide valid examples of this in South Africa after the passage of the law, yes?

"there are blacks there who say just as vile things (including on TV) who are not prosecuted..."

You'll provide valid examples of this lack of prosecution in South Africa after the passage of the law, yes?

And is the corollary of your premise (i.e., "there are whites there who say just as vile things who are not prosecuted...&quot valid too, also indicating selective production as well?

[MosheFeingold]

25. Nope

Lazy people who can't use Google (or read the related NYT article) are on their own to wallow in ignorance; I can't be bothered.

[jcmaine72]

27. No sympathy for racists. N/T