Gwede Mantashe announced on Friday that the ANC has accepted Carl Niehaus's resignation as the party's spokesperson.

He will however remain in the organisation but in a different position, said African National Congress Secretary General Gwede Mantashe.

Earlier, Niehaus told Talk Radio 702 that he was "under severe pressure" with an debt of apparently R700 000 which he owed the Rhema church.

He could have been sequestrated and his former wife could have lost her house.

"Under that pressure I made a mistake to produce a letter which was making promises for the possibility that the Gauteng provincial government would rent in certain buildings in the central business district of Johannesburg," he explained.

"In return for that there was a company who was prepared to provide me with a loan in order to settle the debt that I had with Rhema which had reached the point where it was going to be called in and, as I said, firm legal action was going to be taken."

But Niehaus said that "within hours" of writing the letter he contacted former finance MEC, now Gauteng premier, Paul Mashatile.

"... I said 'I allowed myself to get into this situation, I have done this, I retract this letter, I apologise, clearly because of the situation which I have been in, I have not been thinking things through clearly, I have done wrong', and I immediately placed my resignation."

The Gauteng government denied that Niehaus first brought the matter to its attention by confessing but said it had independently discovered that Niehaus had forged a letter to secure a loan.

Sapa