A Johannesburg mother who called a black woman a “k-word bitch” after she bumped into her and her three-year-old daughter at a shop in Kempton Park has been sentenced to six months in jail.
Marie Basson, 41, also told Nomsa Masuku she had a “fat ass” and should go to the gym, according to testimony before the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court.
Now Basson is headed to prison, after failing in a bid to appeal her six-month jail term for crimen injuria – the crime of unlawfully and intentionally injuring, insulting or impairing the dignity of another person.
The Johannesburg High Court dismissed her appeal earlier this month, reinforcing the precedent set by the imprisonment of convicted racist Vicki Momberg, who was jailed for two years for her repeated use of the k-word.
Similarly, Basson refused to admit or apologise for the language she used against Masuku.
The altercation at Birch Acres Pick n Pay in Kempton Park four years ago started when Basson was standing at a till with her three-year-old daughter, and Masuku asked the little girl if she could pass her to get to the kiosk.
Basson claimed that Masuku had bumped her and her daughter while trying to pass them as she was unpacking her groceries from a trolley.
Masuku told the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court that Basson then turned around and said: “Where the hell do you think you will pass?” She said she responded by apologising and indicated she would only try to squeeze past them if there was space.
Basson however claimed she asked Masuku to apologise but that she refused. This was refuted by a cashier who witnessed the altercation and who testified that Masuku indeed apologised.
Masuku also said Basson’s response to her apology was to say, “you have got a big fat ass”, raising two fingers in the air and telling Masuku “Fuck you”. Masuku said she responded with “You too”.
She said she was crying and felt embarrassed because everyone was looking at her. Basson admitted that she told Masuku that “you bump people because you have a big fat ass”.
Masuku then told her that white people like her shouldn’t shop where black people are shopping.
The fight continued in the parking lot, where Masuku said Basson told her, in front of her daughter: “You are a k****r bitch, a k****r bitch with a big fat ass. You should go to a gym.”
Basson denied in her testimony that she referred to Masuku as a “k****r bitch”.
Masuku then followed Basson out of the parking lot to her home, where she took down her address and car registration details and then reported the incident to the police.
Ultimately, the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court rejected Basson as an unreliable witness and accepted Masuku’s account of what had happened.
It was Basson’s refusal to admit to and apologise for using the k-word, which she insists she never said, that seemingly motivated the Johannesburg High Court to dismiss her appeal.
Johannesburg High Court judges Greg Wright and Thifhelimbilu Mudau found that the six-month sentence imposed on her was not excessive.
Basson had failed to get leave to appeal her conviction.
The dismissal of Basson’s appeal comes after Mudau, in 2019, rejected Momberg’s attempt to challenge her crimen injuria conviction and two-year sentence, for repeatedly referring to a black police officer as the k-word following a smash-and-grab incident.
In his ruling, Mudau said Momberg was “quite evidently unremorseful in her conduct”, and added that there was “no justifiable reason” to interfere with the sentence imposed on her.
Basson’s lawyer, Riaan Louw, said he had not received any instructions from her on whether she should appeal the high court ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal. He could not say whether she had started serving her sentence.