Penny Sparrow has paid neither of the court-ordered fines issued to her for a racist Facebook rant in which she referred to black people as monkeys. That January post went viral‚ causing widespread outrage and leading to two court proceedings against her. The 68-year-old retired estate agent had‚ in June‚ been ordered by the Umzinto Equality Court to pay R150,000 to the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation after being found guilty of hate speech. Magistrate Irfaan Khalil said the amount had to be paid within 60 days and he interdicted Sparrow from further hate speech. However, on Thursday the foundation said it had not received payment from Sparrow. In September‚ Sparrow appeared before magistrate Vincent Hlatshwayo in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast‚ where she pleaded guilty to a charge of crimen injuria. She was fined R5,000 or 12 months’ imprisonment‚ in addition to two years’ imprisonment suspended for five years on condition that she did not c...

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