Julius Malema, head of the novel leftist Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF), led chants of “kill the Boer, the farmer” — a controversial anti-apartheid wrestle track — as he addressed a crowd of supporters on Saturday.

The Boer are the descendants of Dutch settlers.

“It is a man who is decided to ignite… civil warfare,” John Steenhuisen, the chief of South Africa’s greatest opposition celebration, the Democratic Alliance (DA), mentioned of Malema yesterday.

He described the firebrand politician as a “bloodthirsty tyrant” bent on inciting “mass homicide”.

The DA would file a grievance in opposition to him with the UN Human Rights Council and was contemplating additional authorized motion, Steenhuisen added.

The EFF didn’t instantly reply to a request for a remark.

The squabble comes as South African events place themselves for nationwide elections in 2024.

Polls counsel the ruling African Nationwide Congress (ANC), in energy for the reason that finish of white rule in 1994, might see its vote drop beneath 50 p.c, battered by discontent at corruption, energy cuts and entrenched unemployment.