The South African Advertising Standards Authority has received a complaint over a billboard which listed homosexuality among vices and personal problems a church could help people with.

When the billboard first went up in Pretoria, it featured a man ripping open his shirt to reveal the word ‘Grace’ written across his chest.

In the background were words associated with various habits and personal problems including drugs, pornography, depression and lies.

Alongside those was homosexuality. Following complaints, this has now been painted over.

The image was advertising the Light of the Nation Church with the slogan ‘Whom the son sets free is free indeed.’

The South African Press Association reports that local citizen Francois Joubert filed a complaint with the ASA saying: “What annoyed me is they lumped homosexuality with other things such as drug abuse, alcoholism and promiscuity.

“Those are behaviours that people can control.”

Mr Joubert said the billboard was unethical and inaccurate.

Deric Linley, senior pastor at the Light of the Nation Church said homosexuality would be removed and said the advert was meant to “highlight aspects and challenges of everyday life”, not “sins”.

He added: “It was never the intention of Light of the Nations to discriminate against any group, but purely to offer a non-judgmental refuge for people dealing with issues in their personal life.”