A former estate agent has become the first person in South Africa to be sentenced to prison for racist abuse.
A court jailed Vicky Momberg for three years, with one year suspended, for using a derogatory word against a black police officer 48 times.
Her lawyer said she was not in a normal state at the time, as she had just been the victim of a smash-and-grab robbery.
South Africa is still badly affected by racism, almost 24 years after white minority rule ended.
Momberg was convicted of four counts of crimen injuria after her racist rant was caught on video, and went viral on social media.
She hurled insults at officers trying to assist her after she was robbed on the outskirts of the main city, Johannesburg, in 2016, and complained about the “calibre of blacks in Johannesburg compared to black people in Durban”, where she was based.
Prosecutors said it was the worst case of crimen injuria, which refers to injuring someone’s dignity through racial insults, to appear before the courts in South Africa.
Momberg’s lawyers argued that she went into an “emotional storm” after the robbery, and should be sent for rehabilitation rather than to prison.
In her judgment, Magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan told the court that Momberg had not shown remorse or taken responsibility for her actions.
Dressed in black, Momberg stood with her hands in front of her as Raghoonandan explained how she reached her conclusion.
Momberg could be seen wiping tears from her eyes as the magistrate told her that she found no pleasure handing down this type of sentence.
Momberg’s defense say they want to appeal the sentence.
