R100 000 damages award for racist rant victim

THE Equality Court has awarded damages of R100 000 to Johannesburg police Constable Clement Mkhondo for being verbally assaulted by Vicki Momberg when he was attempting to assist her after she was involved in a crime incident last year.

In February 2016, Momberg, 48, was caught on video shouting racial abuse at police officers who had come to her assistance after she became the victim of a smash-andgrab robbery in Johannesburg.

The Equality Court sitting in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court also ordered Momberg to attend a programme of integrated community service and sensitivity training administered by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), along with affiliate organisations such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

As part of the programme, Momberg will be required to visit the Apartheid Museum, attend SAHRC community outreach and advocacy programmes, and attend race sensitisation workshops conducted by the foundation.

Finally, she was ordered to make an unconditional written apology to Mkhondo, which had to incorporate an unequivocal retraction of all or any racial and/or discriminatory and/or abusive remarks amounting to hate speech made against black persons in general. The apology was ordered to be published on Twitter and Facebook, as well as the SAHRC’s website.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr law firm said the Equality Court order was to be welcomed, and hoped it would send out a strong warning that racist hate speech could not be countenanced.

Momberg’s defence was she was suffering from “temporary non-pathological incapacity” following the smash-and-grab incident.

The court said Momberg was found to have been in a state of mind where she could appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions. – African News Agency