A white South African woman has been sentenced to three years in prison with one year suspended for yelling racial slurs at a black policeman.
The Johannesburg court’s ruling against estate agent Vicki Momberg is reported to be the first prison term imposed in South Africa for verbal racial abuse as previous convictions came with fines.
The incident occurred in 2016 when the black policeman tried to help Momberg after thieves broke into her car at night at a shopping centre. She was captured in a video that went viral saying she wanted help from a white or ethnic Indian officer.
She added that black people were “plain and simple useless” and “they are clueless, clueless” while referring to the policeman as a “kaffir”, an apartheid-era slang for a black person, reports Reuters.
Justice Minister Michael Masutha told local TV station eNCA that the sentence would “serve as a deterrent” to others and “it was a question of escalating and intensifying the fight against racism by finding even more sterner measures.”
Vicki Momberg’s lawyer, Kevin Lawlor, said she will appeal her sentence.
South Africa continues to face racism problems several years after the end of the apartheid regime.
