The SABC has received a slap on the wrist after a presenter used an obscene word during a live awards ceremony.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) received numerous complaints after Unathi Msengana, who features as a  judge on M-Net talent show Idols, presented an award at the SA Music Awards earlier this year.

Msengana thought it would be cool to introduce award winner AKA to the audience as a genuine” ”motherf*cker” on 30 April.

The complaints started rolling in almost immediately, with many viewers pointing out that there were children in the audience.

In a BCCSA hearing on 24 May, the SABC said that they had taken specific measures to prevent such a distasteful incident, as it had happened before with the artists.

“Unfortunately this incidence of foul language then involved a presenter”, the broadcaster said, according to SAPA.

The national broadcaster said it had disciplined Msengana following the incident, despite the fact that she is not a member of their channel staff.

As for Msengana, she blamed the incident on an unnamed director/producer for changing the SABC-approved script moments before the show went live. She admitted to regretting her “inadvertent transgression of the code”.

Despite finding that the use of the word during a live broadcast was deeply offensive, the BCCSA chose not to issue a fine.  The commission did issue a warning however, that should the code be violated again in future, they will be far less lenient in their response.