Published on Jun 17, 2016 
 
 The South African national police have confirmed they are investigating a crimen injuria charge laid by Douglasdale police officers against a woman captured on camera calling black officers the k-word. The woman was reporting a smash-and-grab incident while complaining about apparent bad police service. 
 
 
 
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 Crimen injuria is a crime under the South African common law. It is defined as the act of “unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another.” Racial insults using racially offensive language and emotional or psychological abuse are considered as the crimes under crimen injuria. ||||| Image caption Vicky Momberg's lawyers say she is likely to appeal 
 
 A former estate agent in South Africa has been jailed for racist abuse in what has been called a landmark ruling. 
 
 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. 
 
 Racism remains a major issue in South Africa, 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 black 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. 
 
 Handing down her ruling, magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan said some may think the sentence was harsh but it was intended to signal that racism will not be tolerated in South Africa. 
 
 Previous prosecutions had not prevented racist incidents, and therefore imposing a direct prison sentence without the option of a fine would send a strong message, she added. 
 
 Analysis: Shining a light on racism 
 
 Pumza Fihlani, BBC News, Johannesburg 
 
 Momberg is now a convicted racist. At one point in court, she said she could not recall using the highly offensive word, which was commonly used during the height of white minority rule to demean black people. But the video evidence sank her, and it shocked many South Africans. 
 
 She used the derogatory word 48 times in a rage-filled, vitriolic assault against black people - police officers - trying to help her. 
 
 South Africa has seen a spate of racist incidents in recent years. They have shone a light on the country's painful history, and the fact that the nation is still divided. 
 
 It has led to calls for special legislation to deal with such cases, and for harsh sentences for racists. 
 
 Prosecutor Yusuf Baba 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. 
 
 "This is a landmark ruling... It sets a precedent for other racial-related cases." National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Phindi Mjonondwana said. 
 
 Momberg's lawyers argued that she went into an "emotional storm" after the robbery, and should be sent for rehabilitation rather than to prison. 
 
 Her lawyer indicated that she would appeal against the conviction and sentence. If the appeal fails, she will be the first person to be imprisoned in South Africa for racist abuse. 
 
 The emergence of social media has brought numerous cases of racism in South Africa to light. 
 
 In October, two white farmers who forced a black man into a coffin, beat him up and threatened to burn him alive were sentenced to jail for more than 10 years each, after a video of the incident went viral. 
 
 In 2016, a court fined former estate agent Penny Sparrow 150,000 rand ($13,000; £9,000) for calling black people "monkeys" in a Facebook post.
– Vicky Momberg didn't just say the slur one time to black police officers. She said it nearly 50 times, and that rant has now earned her a three-year prison sentence, with one year suspended. The BBC calls the South African ruling a "landmark" one, as it's the first time there a white person has been sentenced to prison for racism. Her conviction and sentencing arose out of an incident that happened in Johannesburg in February 2016, when Momberg made an emergency call to say she'd been robbed. When black cops showed up to help her, she didn't like that, and hurled the word "kaffir"—an offensive word often used to describe blacks during the era of apartheid—at them a total of 48 times in what the BBC deems a "rage-filled, vitriolic assault." Someone caught her diatribe on tape, and it soon went viral. "I do not want a black person to assist me," she can be heard saying in the video (edited version here), per BuzzFeed, before threatening to run the cops over and shoot "everybody." Momberg was convicted in November of crimen injuria, the use of racial or other emotionally damaging insults that "unlawfully, intentionally, and seriously [impair] the dignity of another." Momberg's lawyers argued she'd gone through an "emotional storm" after being robbed, per the BBC, and that she should be sent to rehab, not a jail cell. Many online celebrated Momberg's sentence, though some agreed she needs help. One commenter on Twitter called her a "hateful racist" but noted that "paying damages to the cop she insulted & community service in a black community" would have served as a more "restorative justice" than prison time. Momberg's attorney says she'll appeal the conviction and sentence.