The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) will fight any attempts by "greedy yellow communists" to control the party, its president Julius Malema said on Tuesday.

"If that booing was a declaration of war, we are accepting that invite," Malema said referring to his reception at the South African Communist Party (SACP) conference in Polokwane last week.

He told the Pretoria Press Club that the leadership of the SACP had become corrupt and needed to be taught a lesson in proper political engagement.

"The yellow communists are driven by greed. They sing anti-corruption songs. They are the most corrupt. There is everything wrong with the communists trying to take over the ANC. They must be reminded of the character we want, booing is not part of the character," he said.

After Malema and ANC national executive committee member Billy Masetlha were booed at the SACP event, Malema reportedly asked ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who is also SACP chairperson, for a chance to address delegates but this was refused and Malema left.

This had led to a heated debate between the ANCYL and SACP.

Malema said he was disappointed that Mantashe had not stood up at the conference to show his support.

"We are very much aggrieved. As a custodian [of the ANC] he ignored and refused to take that responsibility. We were leaderless."

Malema also admitted to having sent an SMS message to SACP deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin in which he said he had not learnt a lesson from the incident.

Referring to Cronin as a "white messiah", he said: "Let's teach them correct politics."

"They will be met with a practical lesson on the ground, comrade Jeremy Cronin should stop using the Communist Party. I sent the SMS to him (Cronin). It was not threatening but it said 'if you think that is a lesson, you must wait what is coming, you must think again'."

He also lashed out at Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande for saying nothing in his address which preceded the booing incident.

He called Nzimande a "master character assassinator".

However, Malema was adamant that there was nothing emotional in his response to the booing.

"Afterwards I went to sit with my granny because I realised I could not be part of a festival of booing. When songs are sung in an uncomradely manner to me it was an invite to war.

"We are not going to retreat, let's go to the streets, let's fight," said Malema.

He said the league was also concerned with recent events surrounding the electricity crisis and Eskom, which has recently seen a change in leadership.

"The ANCYL is concerned with the leadership and lack thereof of public enterprises. We are not convinced the incumbent minister [Barbara Hogan] is doing enough."

The youth league would also be approaching government to start a scholarship programme to send no less than 10 000 students to the best universities across the world.

"The reality is that our education system cannot produce enough graduates that is possible," he said.

The league would also continue to push for the nationalising of mines, something Zuma said was opposed by the SACP purely because the "yellow communist" were more interested in the colour of money than the workers.

"We only have respect for the red communists," said Malema.