White South African woman jailed for racism

In February 2016 in Johannesburg, Vicki Momberg was caught on tape referring to black police officers as kaffirs, a derogatory term for black South Africans that was used during apartheid.

When authorities responded to her call of a reported robbery, she told someone on the phone:

“The kaffirs here in Joburg are terrible… I’m so sick of it. I really am.”

When she was approached by an officer, she yelled: “I don’t care. I do not like a single black in Joburg.”

According to Momberg, black South Africans in Durban are “opinionated. They’re arrogant and they’re just plain-and-simple useless.”

She then told an officer: “I am happy for a white person to assist me, or a colored person, or an Indian person. I do not want a black person to assist me.”

The confrontation reached a high when she threatened: “If I see a kaffir, I will drive him over… I have a gun — I will shoot everybody.”

When she was charged with a similar crime in 2006, she allegedly said at a police station that she only wanted to be assisted by white, colored, or Indian people, but not by black people, according to state prosecutor Baba Yusuf during last year’s trial.

Immediately after her sentencing, social media users applauded the ruling on Twitter.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has taken note of the prison sentence as well.

In a statement, it says “it delivers a clear message to South Africans that the kind of race-based abuse for which Ms Momberg was found guilty will not be tolerated.”