South Africa's broadcast complaints watchdog said on Thursday that a song portraying Indians as oppressors of black people constituted hate speech, but it did not order a complete ban.
Songwriter Mbongeni Ngema has been at the centre of a storm for the past month over the lyrics of Ama-Ndiya (Indians), which former president Nelson Mandela has said panders to the same prejudices that underpinned apartheid.
In its ruling, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) said the lyrics were "inflammatory" and "promoted hate in sweeping, emotive language against Indians as a race".
The BCC warned radio and television broadcasters not to play the song for entertainment purposes, but excerpts could be broadcast on news or current affairs programmes as part of a debate on the issue.
"If a broadcaster decides to play the song for enjoyment purposes now, then it would be a contravention of the broadcasting code," said BCC registrar Shouneez Martin.
Durban has one of the largest ethnic Indian populations of any city outside India, but nationally Indians and Asians account for only 2,6 percent of South Africa's 44 million people.
"We struggle so much here in Durban, as we, have been dispossessed by Indians who in turn are suppressing our people," one verse of Ama-Ndiya says, according to an expert translation published in the BCC's ruling.
Another verse says: "Indians don't want to change. Even Mandela has failed to convince them. It was better with whites. We knew then it was a racial conflict".
Critics have called the song racist, but reactions from many black South Africans - to judge by radio phone-ins, letters to newspapers and street talk - have been approving.
Ngema has strongly defended his song's message, saying the nuances in his Zulu lyrics were lost in the English translation.
Ngema introduces the song by saying his goal was to start an honest debate about relations between blacks and Indians.
However, the BCC said: "Objectively judged the song amounts to hate speech, in spite of the reconciliatory introduction of the writer. The song itself does not convey the same message."