EFF leader Julius Malema will not retract words found to constitute incitement of violence, hate speech and possibly other transgressions of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000.

Instead, Malema said he is ready to defend his statements in court as he was not given a chance to defend himself.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) had given Malema an ultimatum on Wednesday to retract some of the statements he made during the party's Western Cape Provincial People's Assembly (PPA) last month.

The HRC's statement says it had received various complaints "corroborated by video recordings of the event" relating to statements made by Malema, as well as posters or banners displayed by the EFF at the meeting of the EFF's PPA.

During the event, in reference to an incident at the Brackenfell High School last year, and footage of a white person "beating up" an EFF member, Malema questioned why that (white) person had not been located and taken to "an isolated space and attended to ... properly". This was followed by an exhortation to the members that "You must never be scared to kill, a revolution demands that at some point there must be...