A virtual meeting held by a South African parliamentary committee has been hacked and the speaker abused.

The programming committee's session had just started on Thursday morning when pornographic images appeared on the screen and a male voice hurled insults at Speaker Thandi Modise, who was chairing it.

The outraged speaker exclaimed that this was why she opposed virtual meetings.

"This is exactly what I said about Zoom!" Ms Modise is quoted as saying by Times Live website.

MPs described the incident as “sick” and “disturbing”, news website Eyewitness News reports.

Parliament's technicians created a new link where MPs then joined in.