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PRETORIA, June 18 (AFP) - South Africa's ruling party tried Tuesday to diffuse anger over a chant of "Kill the Boer, kill the farmer" at the funeral of the activist who popularised the phrase, saying the mourners were merely paying him homage.

The chanting at Saturday's funeral of African National Congress (ANC) firebrand Peter Mokaba -- which President Thabo Mbeki and other party leaders present did nothing to halt -- was met with outrage by white politicians.

Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon noted that more than 900 farms were attacked last year and 140 farmers were murdered, the vast majority of them white.

On Tuesday, ANC spokesman Smuts Ngonyama maintained that "people are making an issue out of nothing".

"If they continue to do so they will polarise society," he told the SAPA news agency, rejecting any linkage between the phrase and farm attacks as "very silly".

The mourners were merely commemorating Mokaba, who used the phrase in apartheid days, Ngonyama said.

The Freedom Front and the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging both announced Sunday that they would lodge complaints with the South African Human Rights Commission over the chanting.

Freedom Front leader Pieter Mulder accused the ANC leadership of double standards when it came to condemning racism.

He said that while the crowd attending Mokaba's funeral chanted the slogan, a KwaZulu-Natal farmer and his wife, Robin and Allison Dent, were murdered in front of their 13-year-old son.

Leon questioned the government's failure to condemn the use of the phrase.

"Allowing hateful slogans ... to be chanted ... in full view of the ANC leadership and most of the cabinet, who did not make a single move to stop it, was a terrible indictment of the double-speak of the ANC and the government," Leon said.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union on Monday added its voice to the criticism, saying it was now clear that the ANC was paying mere lip service to the concept of reconciliation.

"For agriculture, and white farmers in particular, this slogan is just as threatening as it was eight years ago," the union said in a statement.

Most of the perpetrators of farm killings were probably inspired by this "hate speech", it added.

The New National Party, which ruled under apartheid, slammed the chanting as "unacceptable".

"It undermines reconciliation in our country and contributes to tension levels not only in respect of race relations, but also in respect of the serious problem of farm murders," said party MP Renier Schoeman. - Nampa-AFP

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