The Independent Democrats (ID) have appealed in an open letter to the African National Congress (ANC) to desist from challenging a court finding on the struggle song "Shoot the boer".

The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday that the use of the words "Dubula ibhunu" (Shoot the boer) was unlawful and unconstitutional.

In the letter the secretary-general of the ID, Haniff Hoosen, appealed to his ANC counterpart, Gwede Mantashe, to "rise above the current tit-for-tat racial squabbles in South Afrca, which are achieving nothing more than taking our country backwards".

Hoosen said that the current climate about the singing of the song, is reminiscent of pre-1994 intolerance.

"... some amongst us have either failed to see the danger of our actions and words, or simply do not care.

"As a consequence thereof, they have regrettably been unable to resist the temptation of hate speech and the blatant promotion of racial intolerance and violence."

He said that whatever the outcome of the ANC's appeal, his biggest fear was that the country would be the biggest loser.

"I am therefore making an earnest appeal to you and other senior leaders of the ANC to give serious consideration to suspending your process of appealing the ruling and instead convene a national debate on racial tolerance and reconciliation."

Hoosen said that he agreed with the ANC's standpoint that history should not be erased by court judgements, but he added that he believed the singing of struggle songs with the potential to divide people should be discouraged.

"Our country is in desperate need of the kind of racial tolerance, unity and reconciliation that we had in the years following the attainment of freedom in 1994.

"Comrade (Gwede) Mantashe, I trust that you and your party will do what needs to be done in order to revive that spirit of tolerance, in the same way as was achieved by former President Nelson Mandela."