Vicky Momberg loses fifth legal team in dramatic fashion

Less than six months after losing her legal representation, convicted racist Vicki Momberg has lost yet another lawyer.

According to EWN, Momberg was in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday to appeal her conviction and two-year sentence.

Around five legal teams have previously withdrawn from the case after having disagreements with Momberg.

In February of this year, the Randburg Magistrate’s Court declared that Momberg would have to stick with her “incompetent” lawyer Kingdom Onah after he submitted a letter to the high court requesting his withdrawal from her case.

This after Onah said he had repeatedly asked Momberg to supply him with a signed brief that confirmed advocate Anesh Sukdeo would prosecute the appeal on a pro bono basis. The request was never honoured.

During her testimony, Momberg said that despite needing Onah’s help, she felt he was “incompetent”.

Momberg has had to use a string of lawyers during her case, with breakdowns in the relationship with each of them being the primary problem.

Momberg was sentenced to three years in prison in March last year, with one year suspended, following her racist tirade in 2016. She was found guilty of four counts of crimen injuria on November 3 for hurling racial insults at a black police officer and police call centre operators.

According to Times Live, Momberg appeared in court this morning with her recently appointed new legal team of advocate Anesh Sukdeo and attorney Wesley Rogers.

Momberg then halted proceedings by throwing a tantrum about the media’s presence for the impending proceedings and insisted that she would not have it.

She then proceeded to address the judge herself while ignoring her counsel who tried to explain to her that they would not be willing to launch an application to remove reporters from the courtroom.

“The paperwork is not complete. All these are the abuse I experienced at the Randburg court. The media reports have been one-sided and have impacted my livelihood and my family,” Momberg said while addressing the court.

Sukdeo tried to apologise to the judge for the outburst but Momberg was not having it and continued talking over him.

She then asked to represent herself to which Sukdeo responded by explaining that this meant he had been asked to terminate his mandate as her lawyer.

Judge Thifhelimbilu Mudau said he would not grant a postponement for Momberg to hire another legal team as the matter had already gone on for too long. Judge Mudau said Momberg could represent herself after the lunch break.

Judge Mudau told Momberg that there were no merits to barring the media from court as the matter was of public interest.

The publication reports that proceedings were adjourned to give Momberg time to consider what she was asking for but Rogers returned to the court before time was up and loudly stated: “Mandate is terminated, we’re out of here.”

“The tail does not wag the f****ing dog,” added Rogers in conversation with prosecutor Jacqui Drotsky following his announcement.

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