Phat Joe has apologised to listeners and members of the LGBTIQ+ community after he used a "derogatory and transphobic" phrase on his morning show on Radio 2000.

Joe used the word "tranny", an offensive word for a transgender person, in a conversation about Cardi B on Tuesday.

Cardi B sparked outrage in September 2018 after a meme, showing a man walking through a door next to transphobic slurs was posted to her social media page and went viral. The star blamed a former staff member for the post.

Phat Joe received backlash for using the term earlier this week and on Thursday apologised to listeners and those offended.

"When I used the word I was actually paraphrasing what Cardi B said. She used that particular word and I was chastising her for the message in her video. I did not know that the word was a no-no," he said on air.

Joe claimed that many were still uneducated about what words to use in its place and introduced a caller who attempted to educate him on the word.

When approached for comment by TshisaLIVE, Joe referred all requests to the SABC. However, the public broadcaster had not replied to TshisaLIVE's request for comment at the time of publishing this article.

Last month Joe landed in hot water for comments he made about gay people and was suspended for nearly three weeks. 

The star had weighed in on a debate around comments made by Zodwa Wabantu claiming that gay people were too dramatic and "forget that they don't have vaginas".

Sharing this thoughts, Joe allegedly asked why gay men would not accept how hard it was "for most people to accept their lifestyle".