African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe has called on President Kgalema Motlanthe to speak out against calls by supporters of ANC president Jacob Zuma to kill those who oppose their views.

Outside a rally at Orange Farm in Johannesburg on Thursday, convened by suspended African National Congress veteran Mosiuoa Lekota, groups of Zuma supporters chanted "kill Lekota" and "kill Shilowa", referring to former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, another organiser of the event.

"[President Motlanthe] must censure those individuals guilty of what is surely criminal incitement, and quite contrary to the peace we desire for prosperity in South Africa," Meshoe said in a statement.

The ACDP condemned, "in the strongest possible terms", calls by ANC members to kill.

"Threats to kill people because of their political persuasion or their differing opinion should not be tolerated in any democratic country," Meshoe said.

The fact that the ANC had allowed members to get away with talk about killing the opposition and those that did not agree with them showed they did not embrace democracy.

"[We] commend Mosiuoa Lekota for urging restraint and non-violence in response to taunts and bullying from ANC members," Meshoe said.

In her weekly newsletter on Friday, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille also condemned what she called the "drift of the ruling party into political thuggery".

In the same week two DA activists were brutally attacked by ANC supporters in the Mogoba informal settlement near Daveyton, ANC loyalists had threatened to kill Lekota and Shilowa.

"This week I visited two DA activists in the Mogoba informal settlement who had been violently attacked by a gang of men known to be members and supporters of the ANC.

"They had been hacked with axes and bludgeoned with shovels, and one of their homes was burned to the ground.

"Yesterday [Thursday], ANC supporters tried to disrupt a rally held by the former minister of defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, who plans to launch a breakaway party from the ANC. The ANC thugs chanted "Kill Shilowa, kill Lekota".

Zille said that by resorting to thuggish tactics against its opponents, the ANC was showing its true colours.

"The ANC is growing increasingly intolerant of opposition, and its intolerance is manifested both in the militarisation of its discourse and the brutal behaviour of its supporters," she warned.

Sapa