Racism remains South Africa’s enduring problem

The dust has hardly settled on the Penny Sparrow racism case, and South Africa is embroiled in yet another racism incident, ironically featuring another real estate agent, Vicky Momberg.

A video emerged last week of Momberg spewing insults and racial slurs at black police officers who attempt to assist her at the scene of a smash-and-grab crime.

In the video, Momberg a victim of the smash-and-grab crime directs her anger and vitriol at the police officers, using racial epithets and accuses the officers of incompetence, and spurns their assistance.

Momberg is captured in the video screaming: “One k***** is bad enough. This happens all the time, all the time. The k*****s here in Johannnesburg are terrible, I’m so sick of it”.

“The calibre of blacks in this town vary from the calibre of blacks in Durban. They’re opinionated, they’re arrogant, and they’re just plain and simple useless. I am happy for a white person to assist me or a coloured person or an Indian person. I do not want a black person to assist me”.

While the police officers insist on helping Momberg despite her insults, she retorts, “This is the type of police force we have got. We got a low calibre people working. If I see a black person, I will drive them over. If I have a gun, I will shoot everyone”.

The police has since laid a charge of crimen injuria against Momberg and South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is also investigating the case.

Read: South African judge, Mabel Jansen condemned for “racist” and “prejudiced” rape comments

The case has continued to cause public outrage in a country where racism is endemic and cases have become all too common.

Just last week, Penny Sparrow a realtor from KwaZulu Natal was fined R150,000 (U.S$9,800) by the Equality Court for hate speech, a ruling which was welcomed by the public and celebrated on social media as a timely measure, which can deter racism and hate speech.

Social media reactions to the Momberg racism video.