Apologise or be sued, Mandla and SABC tell Sunday World

"I have never pocketed any money or sat at any meeting where this matter was discussed, and traditionally you don't discuss anyone's funeral when that person is still alive," a visibly-afflicted Mandela told journalists.

The Rosebank-based publication from Avusa published a story on 31 May 2009 under the headline Mandla sells Mandela, alleging that the SABC paid him R3 million for the exclusive rights of former president Mandela's funeral.

"We will look at other available options"

"As a family we will look at other available options, including approaching the court, if the newspaper fails to apologise publicly," he said.

"We refuted these allegations and afterwards did our internal investigation and found no evidence of such thing into the SABC, as we wanted to ensure that nobody from our side was involved in such act," SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told Bizcommunity.com on the sidelines of the press briefing.

"We recently went to see the Mandela family in Qunu and agreed that we should embark on this process. You can buy soccer broadcasting rights but not someone's funeral broadcasting rights and, if we did such a thing, it was going to be a huge indictment on our part."

Asked why the SABC did not lodge a complaint with the office of the press ombudsman, Kganyago said his organisation did not make a decision at that time, as they were hoping that the newspaper would come clean and clear after 'telling lies'.

"We challenged them to publish that contract"

"We challenged them to publish that contract, but they never did that."

Hlaudi Motsoeneng, SABC group executive for stakeholder relations and provinces, said if it came to that stage [Mandela's funeral], the SABC will work with other broadcasters, including foreign broadcasters, because - as he put it - the former president is a world celebrity, not only the SABC's or South Africa's property.

The SABC says it regrets the attitude of some sections of the media fraternity, which continued to make reference to the above allegations as fact, even after it clarified this matter in a statement issued on 4 June 2009.

Kganyago said the SABC and Chief Mandela felt it necessary to revisit this matter and to communicate to the public together to lay this matter to rest once and for all.

"Consider the consequences of spreading false info"

"We both agree that it is important that our relationship should not be guided by this unfortunate story. We urge media practitioners to consider the consequences of spreading false information about individuals or organisations as this always have unpleasant results."

Several attempts to get comment from the newspaper's management drew a blank.