SABC1’s Khumbul’ekhaya did not break the rules when it aired an interview with the word “boesman”.

Frederick Smith complained to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) that an episode of the show was offensive when it referred to coloured people in a “manner that is racist‚ insulting and defamatory”‚ but his complaint was recently dismissed.

In the episode‚ Lungile Bvuma‚ speaking in Xitsonga‚ referred to a coloured person as a “boesman”. SABC1 translated the word to “coloured person” in the show’s English subtitles.

Khumbul’ekhaya helps its participants search for missing family members.

Smith said SABC1 failed in its duty to edit the discriminatory language before airing the episode and demanded an apology from the show’s producers.

SABC1 responded BY saying that it was not Bvuma’s intention to demean coloured people when she used the word.

 She directly quoted her father’s use of the word to describe the person who left with her mother‚ it said.

“The choice to replace the word ‘boesman’ with the word ‘coloured’ in the subtitling was an editorial decision to clarify what she meant rather than placing the focus on the historical abuse of the word‚” it said.

Smith argued‚ however‚ that the fact that Bvuma learnt the word elsewhere did not make her use of it correct‚ and accused the SABC1 of trivialising the matter.

While the BCCSA sympathised with Smith’s complaint‚ it said that the show did not violate the broadcasting code but only attempted to accurately translate Bvuma’s interview.

“The word was not intended to be used in a demeaning way… It was not malicious‚” it said.