By Carien du Plessis and Murray Williams
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille is to sue Julius Malema after the ANC Youth League president accused the DA leader of "suffering from Satanism".
And on Wednesday morning the Freedom Front Plus announced that it would lay a formal criminal complaint against Malema for a song he sang during a speech at the University of Johannesburg which recalled former ANCYL leader Peter Mokaba's signature chant of "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer".
Malema made the comment about Zille and sang the song during the same rally on Tuesday.
He claimed that Zille was responsible for the demolition of churches in Khayelitsha.
On Tuesday a delegation of ANC MPs visited Khayelitsha after complaints from churches about places of worship being destroyed by City of Cape Town officials.
Zille said today: "I have asked my attorney to sue Malema. I sent my attorney a formal written instruction in the early hours."
She said she had "never demolished a church nor given any instruction to demolish a church".
"Someone must stop Malema in his tracks. He thinks he is above the law, whether it is evading taxes or inciting racial hatred.
"He has gone a bridge too far. I am a Christian and being called a Satanist is nothing less than hate speech. He must learn very quickly that we are equal before the law, and that we must all abide by the law.
"If he is allowed to continue, he could ignite serious civil conflict."
The slur is the latest in a string of insults directed at Zille by the youth league.
Soon after her inauguration as premier last year, the youth league called her a "racist girl" whose male MECs were "her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them".
Zille's staff confirmed that she was a church-goer and a choir member, who had worked "extremely hard" to resolve the church matter in Khayelitsha while she was mayor.
Zille said yesterday that, upon enquiry, the City of Cape Town had told her that some independent churches had illegally built their structures on council land and had been classified as "land invasions".
She said today: "We launched a process to find an appropriate way of releasing land to independent churches, given the fact that there are literally scores of them, all with competing claims, on land ear-marked for other critically needed developments. It's not as simplistic as it looks - it had to go through a proper legal process.
"I have requested an urgent report about where this process is now within the city administration and why it is taking so long."
Before starting his speech, Malema sang dubul' ibhunu, which echoed Mokaba's notorious "Kill the Boer" trademark slogan.
Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Pieter Mulder was due to lay a criminal complaint against Malema with the police today.
ID leader Patricia de Lille did not escape Malema's vitriol yesterday after she recently questioned the issue of his tax compliance.
Malema told students that De Lille's "husband should divorce her". He told students that De Lille should, instead of pursuing him, "go and build her own family and be concerned about the taxes of her husband, if she's got a husband".
"Patricia doesn't look like a married woman. There is no normal man who can marry Patricia. If Patricia has got a husband, that husband must divorce Patricia and come and look for well-mannered and beautiful women in the ANC."
In response, De Lille said: "I will not go to that level. It is such a stupid comment. It just shows that he has a few brain cells, maybe only half a brain cell."
Malema was equally defiant when it came to the ruling alliance's internal politics, saying Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi would not enjoy the league's support at the ANC's national elective conference in 2012.
"(Vavi) said he was going to the national executive committee of the ANC. That is uncultured. But because he doesn't understand the ANC very well, he wants to start from the top. We say to him: 'Go to your branch.'"
He said the youth league supported a second term for President Jacob Zuma, adding: "If you want to survive in the ANC, support Zuma... That is the only man that is guaranteed to have a second term in 2012."
While denying that the league wanted to prematurely remove Zuma or ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, Malema hinted that they would not support Mantashe for a second term.
Youth league treasurer Pule Mabe, who was at Malema's side, and Gauteng league secretary Thabo Kupa told the crowds that Malema had the support of the league to remain its president in 2011.
Malema repeated his calls for the nationalisation of the mines, and said the R140 million reportedly made on tenders should be nationalised and given to poor students.