Cape Town - Professor Tim Noakes is set to face an inquiry into alleged "unprofessional conduct".
Noakes, the man behind the Banting diet, advised a mother to wean her child onto a low-carb high-fat diet on Twitter.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which regulates health professions in the country, confirmed on Wednesday that a two-day hearing would take place in June, following a complaint laid by the Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA) last year.
When asked why they had approached the HPCSAl, Association president Claire Julsing-Strydom said: "(We) have been advised by the Council to not provide any comments on this matter as the inquiry is sub judice."
On Wednesday morning Noakes said he welcomed the hearing as it would provide him with an opportunity to challenge "the last few decades of harmful dietary advice". He said that according to papers he had been served with by the Council, the charge related to a tweet he had sent in February last year in response to a concerned mother.
"She was asking for advice on what to feed her child and I advised her to wean the child on to low carbohydrate, high protein, nutrient-dense food. By that I was implying that she shouldn't wean the child on to cereals."
It's advice which he said is backed by Canada's board of health. But Noakes's diet - which promotes cutting carbs and eating more fatty foods - has attracted controversy, particularly in South Africa.
Last year professors at UCT, where Noakes is employed, slammed the Noakes's dietary advice as being harmful.
Noakes said that he was "ecstatic" about the hearing.
"Absolutely, I know I'm going to win. It is going to show up some people's ignorance and it could not have come at a better time."
Noakes is poised to release his second edition of the Real Meal Revolution, a guide to the Banting diet. In it, he has devoted a year of research and writing towards how children should be fed.
"I know the biology of a child and I know there is nothing they can say that will challenge my research."
He added that the worst they could do was strip him of his ability to practice medicine.
"And I haven't practiced for years. The stakes are higher for them. If I prove them wrong, I'm not just proving a few dietitians wrong, I'm proving that the old way of thinking about diets was incorrect."
The first edition of his book, the Real Meal Revolution, has already sold over 150 000 copies and remains one of the country's bestsellers.
Cape Argus