The singing of "shoot the boere, they are rapists" by African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema was "blown out of proportion", the League said on Thursday.

"... The President [Jacob Zuma] sang Umshini Wam, about a gun, and no one has taken up a gun... these are commemorative songs we sing about the past," said ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu.

"...The stupidity of the Sowetan and of one [reporter] from Independent Newspapers who blew it out of proportion."

Malema has faced criticism for singing the song at his birthday celebration in Polokwane last week and at a student gathering in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The ANC takes a similar view to Shivambu with its spokesperson Jackson Mthembu saying that the song was sung for years, even before Malema was born - it was a song against cowardice and oppressive forces.

AfriForm Youth held a different view. Its chairperson Ernst Roets on Thursday sought to provide the league with a list of 1 600 people murdered on South African farms in recent years.

"It is our understanding that the Youth League claims this song should be seen within a political context and that it has no physical or emotional affect on whites or Afrikaners whatsoever," Roets said.

AfriForum was therefore providing the list of victims to show that singing of the song may have consequences.

"This is not a game of cowboys and crooks. On the ground people are being murdered while Julius Malema is singing and sipping on champagne."

Roets' attempt to give the list to the ANCYL proved fruitless, with no one willing to accept it.

He turned up at Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters, armed with the list and an email sent to the League alerting it to the organisation's intentions.

However, Shivambu said that Roets did not make an appointment. He said that the League had no knowledge of the bid to hand over the list of names.

He accused AfriForm Youth of "grandstanding".

Roets was determined to have the League see his list, threatening at one point to stick the list up on the outside walls of the ANC headquarters.

He thought better of it after a phone call to his lawyer, but proceeded to the Equality Court in Johannesburg where he submitted a complaint against Malema.

"We instituted legal proceedings... we want the matter to be referred to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, the song to be declared hate speech by the court, we want Malema to apologise and also to pay damages," Roets said.

The song "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer", sung by the late Peter Mokaba, was found to constitute hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission in 2003.

The song sung by Malema was not the same song, though the lyrics were similar. The 2003 finding, therefore, did not apply to it, said Roets.