Convicted racist Vicki Momberg was cool‚ calm and collected as the Johannesburg High Court dismissed her appeal against her conviction and sentence on Friday morning.
Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau said there was no justifiable reason to interfere with the sentencing discretion of the trial court in this case.
"Even if the court of appeal is of the view that it would have imposed a much lighter sentence‚ it would not be free to interfere if it were not convinced that the sentencing court could not reasonably have imposed the sentence which it determined‚" Mudau said in his judgment.
Legally‚ Momberg can now approach the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). If that fails‚ she can then approach the Constitutional Court. Both can refuse to hear her matter.
Mudau told Momberg she would need to hand herself over to the Randburg Magistrate's Court to serve her remaining sentence if she failed to file an appeal.
The court previously convicted her on all four charges of crimen injuria and sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment.
The judge found that Momberg was "quite evidently unremorseful for her conduct".
"The sentence imposed cannot be faulted. There is no justifiable reason to interfere with the sentencing of the trial court in this case.
"The system of apartheid‚ on which racism has its foundation‚ has been declared a crime against humanity‚" Mudau said.
He said that whether she was not cognitively aware of her actions‚ or that her actions were unplanned and undirected‚ depended on an evaluation of the facts.
No reason to change racist Vicki Momberg's two-year sentence: judge
Convicted racist Vicki Momberg was cool‚ calm and collected as the Johannesburg High Court dismissed her appeal against her conviction and sentence on Friday morning.
Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau said there was no justifiable reason to interfere with the sentencing discretion of the trial court in this case.
"Even if the court of appeal is of the view that it would have imposed a much lighter sentence‚ it would not be free to interfere if it were not convinced that the sentencing court could not reasonably have imposed the sentence which it determined‚" Mudau said in his judgment.
Legally‚ Momberg can now approach the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). If that fails‚ she can then approach the Constitutional Court. Both can refuse to hear her matter.
Mudau told Momberg she would need to hand herself over to the Randburg Magistrate's Court to serve her remaining sentence if she failed to file an appeal.
The court previously convicted her on all four charges of crimen injuria and sentenced her to two years’ imprisonment.
The judge found that Momberg was "quite evidently unremorseful for her conduct".
"The sentence imposed cannot be faulted. There is no justifiable reason to interfere with the sentencing of the trial court in this case.
"The system of apartheid‚ on which racism has its foundation‚ has been declared a crime against humanity‚" Mudau said.
He said that whether she was not cognitively aware of her actions‚ or that her actions were unplanned and undirected‚ depended on an evaluation of the facts.
The trial magistrate convicted her and rejected a doctor's opinion that the choice of words used by Momberg during her outbursts “was racial and directed specifically to black people which proved that she had the necessary intent in the form of dolus directus"‚ said Mudau.
Following a brief stay in prison‚ Momberg has been trying to appeal against both the conviction and sentence.
The former estate agent was convicted of crimen injuria last year for using the k-word 48 times against police officers and 10111 operators trying to assist her following a smash-and-grab in 2016.
Her defence rested mainly on claims that she suffered from "sane automatism"‚ meaning she had limited capacity for her actions because she was so traumatised by the smash-and-grab.
Source: TMG Digital.