The "shoot the boer" hate speech complaint against African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema was transferred to the High Court in Johannesburg on Monday.

The matter was heard in a closed court and no media were allowed inside. It had initially been scheduled to take place at the Equality Court.

The complainant, civil rights movement Afriform, withdrew its case against the ANC, but was proceeding with taking the ANCYL to court. The league responded by calling Afriforum a "group of racist children who are crazy".

Its spokesperson Floyd Shivambu was reacting to a statement by Afriforum lawyer Willie Spies ahead of a hearing, set to deal with the hate speech complaint the organisation had laid against the ANC and the league.

"We had fruitful discussions with the ANC," said Spies.

"But with youth league leader Julius Malema, there seems to be no attempt or wish from his side to admit that his actions offended some people."

Shivambu told Sapa on Monday morning: "We don't want to respond anything to Afriforum [sic]. It's just a group of racist children who are crazy."

The hate speech hearing about the singing of the words "dubul' ibhunu", (shoot the boer) in the struggle song, "Ayesaba Amagwala", was scheduled for 2pm.

At the last hearing in September, Judge Colin Lamont adjourned the matter to give the parties time to resolve the dispute.

Afriforum laid the complaint after Malema first sang the song at the University of Johannesburg in mid-March. It caused an outcry in some sectors of society. He continued singing it at events in Rustenburg in North West, East London in the Eastern Cape and Polokwane in Limpopo.

"We got the idea that he was quite enjoying the attention," said Spies.

In April, days before right wing leader Eugene Terre'blanche was murdered in an apparent wage dispute with two farm workers, Afriforum secured an interdict against the singing of the song in the High Court in Pretoria.

After the murder, President Jacob Zuma made a public plea for calm, which Spies said also showed the ruling party realised the sensitivities around racial tensions.

The High Court in Pretoria interdict came on the heels of a court ruling in March in the High Court in Johannesburg, when Judge Leon Halgryn ruled the singing and publication of the song was unconstitutional and unlawful.

The Halgryn ruling was made after an application by Delmas businessman Willem Harmse, who argued that the song promoted farm killings.

Fellow Mpumalanga businessman Mohammed Vawda opposed the application, but did not request leave to appeal against Halgryn's ruling. The ANC has however filed an application for leave to appeal against Halgryn's ruling.

Spies said that Afriforum understood in principle why the ANC wanted to appeal against that ruling, because it seemed the application was made by two friends.

"We do not believe in quick fix court orders," said Spies.

Earlier this year ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu sang it to a Sapa reporter over the phone to explain its context - while he was detained by police for drunk driving.

The "shoot the boer" phrase was popularised by former ANCYL president Peter Mokaba at a memorial rally for slain anti-apartheid activist and South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani in Cape Town in 1993, months before South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994.