State wants Jackie Phamotse sentenced to hard time over Kumalo comments

JOHANNESBURG - The State wants Jackie Phamotse sentenced to hard time over what’s been found to be criminal comments she made on X – then Twitter – in 2018.

In the tweet, she alluded to a sex tape involving socialite couple, Basetsana and Romeo Kumalo, which she’s since admitted never existed.
 
In September 2023, the Randburg Magistrates Court found Phamotse guilty of criminal defamation and of crimen injuria over her comments.
 
She was also convicted of contempt of court over her publishing of a book about the matter after she was slapped with a harassment order by the Kumalos.
 
Sentencing proceedings were underway on Tuesday.

READ: Probation officer recommends fine, public apology for Jackie Phamotse over Kumalo comments

In closing arguments on Tuesday morning, the State argued that Phamotse should be sentenced to direct imprisonment.
 
Public prosecutor, Yusuf Baba, argued that she had shown no remorse as confirmed by a probation officer who testified earlier in March that there was no guarantee she wouldn't offend and that the motive behind her crimes was “morally unacceptable."
 
"The motive in these crimes was morally unacceptable. Most of the immediate family members of the victims have suffered emotionally and also psychologically and still so suffer. The lives of these victims, be it primary, secondary or tertiary, have been changed for the worst and to some extent, indefinitely."
 
However, Phamotse’s lawyer, Mpho Mathonsi, is asking for a non-custodial sentence and argues that Phamotse, like the Kumalos, has been negatively affected by this case, even going so far as to suggest that fact that she’ll now have a criminal record is, on its own, punishment enough.
 
What the court will decide, awaits to be seen.