Political parties and civil rights group expressed concern on Wednesday on the dropping of some charges against ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, saying the disciplinary procedure was ineffective.

The Democratic Alliance said dropping three of the four charges laid against Malema showed democratic principles counted for nothing in the ruling party.

"The ANC has made it clear that democratic principles such as freedom of expression, the rule of law and democracy count for nothing when compared to deference and obsequiousness, on which the ruling party clearly places a far greater emphasis," the DA's Khume Ramulifho said in a statement.

Malema was hauled before the ANC disciplinary hearing last week for publicly supporting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, calling a BBC journalist a "bastard" and a "bloody agent", and singing "shoot the boer" after it was banned by a high court.

These charges were withdrawn during Tuesday's proceedings after a plea bargain was reached with Malema's representative, Mathews Phosa.

Malema was however found guilty on the charge relating to his public attack on Zuma. He also pleaded guilty to this.

He attacked Zuma for rebuking him in public and compared him to his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki while addressing the media on April 11. Ramulifho said this "superficial remark went straight to the president's ego.

"And so, never mind the rule of law, never mind freedom of expression, it had to be dealt with. Because there is one thing a nationalist party cannot survive without, and that is deference towards its leaders.

"In doing so, the ANC sacrificed democratic principle on the alter of egoism, to the detriment of its own reputation."

Malema was ordered to attend anger-management classes, make a public apology to the ANC president, the ANC and the public in general and pay a fine of R10 000 to a youth development project.

He was also ordered to attend the party's political school for 20 days.

Civil rights organisation Afriforum said the outcome of Malema's disciplinary hearing confirmed the need for an equality court case against him. Afriforum leader Ernst Roets said the withdrawal of the charge regarding singing dubula ibhunu (shoot the boer) was cause for concern.

"It's an indication of the ANC's nonchalant attitude towards the independence of the judiciary and their support for the song.

"The fact that important issues have been completely ignored means that we now have to continue our battle against Malema's hate speech in all earnest," he said.

Meanwhile, the Young Independent Democrats also voiced concern that the youth leader's "real crimes" had gone unpunished.

It called the ANC's disciplinary process a dishonest attempt to portray itself as an ethical party.

"The ANC has shown that it does not care about Malema's real crimes and that insulting Jacob Zuma is far worse than stealing millions of rands from poor South Africans through tax evasion," its leader Xanthea Limberg said.