The ANC's call for an end to hate speech and personal attacks of people, both inside and outside the party, has been welcomed.

ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe slammed those who vilified their political opponents.

"These alliances should actually work together in leading society and doing what it should do in serving society, so the principle applies across the board internal and external of the alliance," he said.

This comes after an ANC Youth League leader claimed Free State University Rector Professor Jonathan Jansen should be shot like a criminal.

The MK Military Veterans Association said former cabinet minister Kader Asmal should go to a cemetery and die.

Political analyst Steven Friedman said it was time an ANC leader stepped forward.

"Some of us have been saying for sometime that it is the responsibility of leadership figures to ensure that people in politics don't say things which might incite hatred and violence against other people and it is certainly a step in the right direction for someone like Gwede Mantashe to say enough is enough," he said.

Read Rebekah Kendal's opinion piece on the ANC and freedom of expression in the new South Africa here.

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