EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the party placed its full support behind Mandela, adding that the call by AfriForum was “racist” and seeking to suppress a legitimate open cry by the “African child that land must be returned to its rightful owners, the black people”.

“No African child must ever be suppressed or even threatened with losing any job or privileges for speaking the truth about the land. The land question must be resolved for a true decolonisation of our country to happen. Without the land, political freedom is futile and will soon be a joke.

“There is nothing racist by stating the correct fact that white people drove a racist project of land dispossession called colonisation.”

Mandela caused a stir when she tweeted: “Dear Apartheid Apologists, your time is over. You will not rule again. We do not fear you. Finally #TheLandIsOurs.”

The ANC resolved at its Nasrec conference to have land expropriated without compensation, a policy the EFF has been advocating since its inception in 2014, but provided it doesn’t affect food security and growth.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus has insisted that the government takes action against Mandela for her “racist and divisive” tweets.

“Ms Mandela apparently does not see the irony of the fact that she is launching an attack on white people in her own country from a successful Eurocentric country by disparaging them as “land thieves and Apartheid apologists” who are like ‘those uninvited visitors who don’t want to leave’,” FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said.

Groenewald said Mandela owed all South Africans an apology and that making such statements outside of South Africa’s borders did not indemnify her from accountability. He added that the statements could not be justified by Mandela saying she made them in her personal capacity.

“Any statement made by a high-profile government official on a social media platform for all the world to see cannot be labelled private. Until now, the ANC government has opted to look the other way when black politicians openly attack white people and incite racialism,” he claimed.

Groenewald said the ANC government could not remain silent about Mandela’s comments, as it would send a message of its approval of “racist rhetoric” that was detrimental to race relations in South Africa.

“In the interest of all peace-loving South Africans, the FF Plus will not just let this go. Ms Mandela must be called to account for her irresponsible behaviour,” he said.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Sihle Zikalala shot down calls for Mandela to be punished, IOL reported on Monday.

DM