The commission last month asked Malema to retract his comments and apologise.

He, however, refused, with the EFF having previously said that the comments were taken out of context, in an effort to paint the organisation and its leader in a bad light.

Julius Malema made the comments in question after a white man was apparently captured on camera beating up an EFF member during a protest at a local high school last year.

"If I were to ask you what have you done in terms of follow up, after being beaten by that white guy, why have you not as a revolutionary organisation followed up on that guy, him alone, to check that guy in an isolated space and attend to the guy properly?"

He also said that they "should never be scared to kill".

"A revolutionary demands that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutionary act."

In its papers, which were filed with the Equality Court in the Western Cape last week, the SAHRC said that these comments demonstrated "a clear intention to incite harm and propagate hatred on the basis of race".

It said that as appalling as racism was, and even against the threat of an assault, that there was no legal justification for "following up on" and killing someone.

The commission wants Malema’s comments declared hate speech and for him to be ordered to retract them and apologise and to fork out R500,000 in damages.

It also wants the court to interdict Malema and the EFF from making similar comments in future and from inflicting violence against or killing anyone.

Source: EWN