The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has again called for the removal of Die Stem from the National Anthem in its Heritage Day message.

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi on Monday also called on the government to remove apartheid and colonial statues along with Die Stem.

"These symbols perpetuate the comfort of racists and white supremacy," Ndlozi said in a party statement.

Ndlozi said the party joined hands with fellow South Africans in celebrating Heritage Day, and repeated the call for land expropriation without compensation through the Constitution.

"The most important heritage upon which all culture is based, is the land," Ndlozi said.

He added that the continent should embrace the language of Kiswahili for the purposes of "continental unity".

"Let us take pride in our heritage," Ndlozi finished.

Meanwhile, deputy president David Mabuza commemorated National Heritage Day in Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, unveiling a statue of Adam Kok, a leader of the Griqua people in the 1800s.

During his address, Mabuza said people should remind one another that a person’s heritage should not be exclusionary, but be all embracing of another.

"If we do not confront this reality and sad state of affairs, we would just be burying our heads in the sand and causing a huge source of frustration and resentment to all those who were brutally dispossessed of their land," he said. 

Mabuza added that, as the day was being celebrated, issues of historical fault lines and injustices that continued to threaten the peace and stability of South Africa should be confronted with determination.

"We have come here to pay tribute to all those who came before us in making a South Africa of our dreams that is united in diversity.

"We come to celebrate our heritage and to wallow in this spring of our diversity with a single objective of raising the sun of hope that unity, despite all our differences, is our defining strength,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, the Democratic Alliance said it was important that the new generation of South Africans continue to build on the legacy of all the political parties that took part in the Codesa negotiations.

The party celebrated Heritage Day at the Convention for a Democratic SA (Codesa) walk in Emperors Palace, Kempton Park.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the Codesa negotiations helped form a better South Africa, and that a new sense of division was emerging that could only be solved by uniting and talking.