Expelled former PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele was among a group of people who disrupted an SABC Morning Live broadcast for Human Rights Day at the Sharpeville cemetery, the Pan African Congress said on Wednesday.
"We recognised the expelled member Mphahlele, who was expelled in 2013 for bringing the party into disrepute," Pan Africanist Congress of Azania spokesman Kenneth Mokgatlhe claimed.
He said three other people were with the former president. While they were wearing PAC clothing, Mokgatlhe said that they were not known to the party.
Earlier on Wednesday SABC journalist Leanne Manas tweeted that their broadcast from the Sharpeville cemetery – as part of commemorations of the Sharpeville massacre – had come to an "abrupt and frightening end".
Crowds of people, including PAC members, had gathered at the cemetery to remember the deaths of 69 people during a protest against pass laws on this day in 1960.
"Two factions of the PAC stormed in front of our cameras & started threatening each other violently," tweeted Manas.
She added that her crew had helped shield and remove her from the scene and that she "ducked a few blows".
Mokgatlhe said that the PAC had helped the journalists get into their car "for their own safety".
He said there was "no violence" and "there was never a confrontation". According to the spokesman, the PAC had managed to calm the situation with the help of marshalls at the site.
He said that while they had asked the group what their intention was: "They were not saying anything, so it was difficult to tell what the problem was".
Events were proceeding smoothly as the Human Right Day's programme continued into the early afternoon, said Mokgatlhe.
A leadership battle in the PAC has led to a series of court applications between warring factions over the year.
Mphahlele was expelled from the PAC in 2013, but obtained a court order to set aside his expulsion. The faction led by Luthando Mbinda appealed and a full bench of the court upheld his expulsion.
Mbinda, who became the party's president, was then also expelled last year because "he wanted to control party funds", Mokgatlhe told City Press last year.
In the same report, Mbinda retorted: "I am the only one who is an MP and yet I had no access to documents about funds or the funds themselves."
He said this had blocked him from signing a declaratory form in Parliament to account for PAC funds as he had no knowledge about what was happening with the money.
PAC secretary general Narius Moloto was elected and appointed the party's new president in December.