South Africa's ruling party brushed off accusations of fueling racial tension amid fears of a bloody backlash over the killing of far-right leader Eugene Terre'Blanche.
Anger over the death of the fiery founder of Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) has shifted to the singing of a ruling party popularised song, "kill the boer", which is being blamed for triggering the leader's death.
The provocative anti-apartheid song has been recently revived by the militant youth leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Julius Malema, who has sung it at public gatherings.
"Any claim that blacks intend to harm other race groups -- (in) particular our white compatriots -- is baseless and devoid of all truth," the African National Congress (ANC) said in a statement.
Arrests made
Two black workers on Terre'Blanche's farm, one a teenager, have been arrested for the murder on Saturday night, allegedly motivated by a wage dispute, and are expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Terre'Blanche's movement has blamed Malema for sparking the murder of its revered leader but the ANC has backed its youth leader and said linking the song is provocative and meant to fan racial polarisation.
"Let us not add fuel to an already very sensitive atmosphere in the wake of Mr Terre'Blanche's death by making unfounded and dangerous speculative statements," it said.
Accusations fly
The youth leader has rejected the accusations which on Monday were carried on a Beeld Afrikaans newspaper front page headline, "The song is the culprit" -- family and boere blame Malema.
"We have nothing to do with his death," Malema told reporters in Harare on Tuesday while on a visit to Zimbabwe hosted by President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF youth.
"I am not going to be terrorised by right-wingers in our country. I am not scared."
Two court rulings have banned the "kill the boer" song but the ANC has insisted that it is part of the history of the country's struggle for liberation. Boer is the Afrikaans word for farmer.
Terre'Blanche's killing was swiftly condemned by President Jacob Zuma who again repeated calls for calm on national television on Monday, following fears of retaliation from South Africa's extremist fringe.
Hundreds to mourn Terre'Blanche
The right-winger's Friday funeral is expected to draw hundreds of AWB supporters, who are known for their swastika-like symbols and khaki uniforms.
The extremist leader -- found with a machete still embedded in his flesh and a knob-headed stick nearby -- will be buried on his farm, where he was hacked and bludgeoned to death over a pay dispute on Saturday.
The pair of workers charged for the murder reportedly notified and waited for police of the attack, saying Terre'Blanche used to verbally and physically abuse them.
The AWB, which violently opposed South Africa's democracy with a wave of deadly bombings ahead of the all-race polls in 1994, has also called for calm but vowed to avenge Terre'Blanche's killing
On Tuesday, AWB commandant Pieter Steyn told journalists that the group had retracted the pledge, saying that "there's going to be absolutely no revenge attacks".
'Death will be avenged'
But the group's secretary-general refuted this, telling AFP that the death would be avenged.
"We haven't retracted our plan. We will revenge his death but we won't do it right now," he told AFP.
The South African Communist Party (SACP), which is the ruling partner of the ANC, said Terre'Blanche's killing highlighted problems faced by farm workers who live on vast land-holdings with limited usage rights.
Zuma's government in March announced a plan to introduce new legislation to quicken the land reform programme, admitting that current measures have failed to redress apartheid patterns that left 87 percent of land in white hands.
Violence on farms, which are largely white-owned, 16 years after apartheid ended is high in South Africa, with 1,248 farmers and farm workers killed between 1997 and 2007.
