ANN7 will apologise on air for airing allegations that former president Nelson Mandela called former tourism minister Derek Hanekom an "apartheid agent".
The television channel will also have to remove any reference to these claims from their social media pages.
Udo Froese‚ a guest on ANN7‚ alleged on Friday August 11 that Mandela had called Hanekom an "apartheid agent" in 1996.
"Those were the words of Nelson Mandela in 1996‚ and it's on record‚" Froese said.
ANN7 replayed Froese’s claim on August 13. He said this during a discussion about the vote of no confidence by secret ballot against President Jacob Zuma in the National Assembly on August 8.
Hanekom lodged a complaint at the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA).
"Given that I was a member of President Mandela's Cabinet at that time (and remained such thereafter)‚ it is improbable in the extreme that he would have made such a statement without it coming to my notice‚" Hanekom wrote in his complaint.
Hanekom believes Froese lied to injure his "dignity‚ good name and reputation".
The news anchor Sindy Mabe did not interject after Froese made the claim.
Multichoice's head of regulatory compliance‚ Bruce Mkhize‚ said in their response to Hanekom's complaint that Froese’s claim was false.
The BCCSA heard the complaint on Wednesday and will issue a formal ruling at a later stage.
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