South African woman sent to prison for racist rant

A South African woman has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for use of racist language in a February 2016 rant, in which she threatened to run down and shoot black South Africans. / Eyewitness News

A white woman in South Africa has been sentenced to prison for a racist rant against a black police officer who was trying to help her after a robbery.

Vicki Momberg today was given a three-year sentence, though one year was suspended on condition that she does not repeat the crime.

The former real estate agent was convicted of violating the dignity of the police officer with racially offensive comments.

The BBC reports that she used a derogatory word against the officer 48 times.

Her lawyer said she was not in a normal state at the time because of the robbery.

The BBC reported that Momberg's racist rant was caught on video, and went viral on social media. It said she complained about the "calibre of blacks in Johannesburg compared to black people in Durban", where she was based.

Magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan says Momberg did not show any remorse for the 2016 incident in Johannesburg.

South Africa became an all-race democracy after the end of white minority rule in 1994.

- AP