Civil rights organisation AfriForum on Monday submitted criminal charges against two South African Police Service (Saps) officials and a former member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) after they used social media to incite farm attacks against farmers and minorities.

This follows after Saps members Mseleni Mogolwane Gwabeni and Chris Gumotso and former member of the SANDF Major Mageti Mohlala took to social media to call for violence against farmers.

AfriForum Deputy CEO Ernst Roets said that the organisation took the remarks seriously.

Gwabeni took to Facebook to say, “then we must continue to kill more of their farmers at least to make up for what they did to us [sic]”.

Gumotso, who works at the Saps youth crime prevention desk according to his Facebook profile, placed the following on Facebook: “All white man…deserve to die…in future..fuck u..Mr white man [sic].”

He also placed photos of firearms on his police desk on his profile with this quote: “I predict th civil war.. in mzansi…by 2019…take out ur guns…fighters coz Asijiki [sic].”

Mohlala said in reaction to a photo of an attacked 80-year-old man that the attackers should have stabbed out his eyes and tongue so that they would have been the last people he ever saw and that he could have gone to his grave with this nightmare. He also said: “Apartheid is in him. All of these old white people think we are stupid when they say they were opposed to apartheid. We will not forget what they have done. Now it is the white people’s turn.”

Roets added that inaction over such incidents could be considered a form of complicity by the South African government and said it urgently needs to be tackled by the police to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted.

The civil rights organisation said it was extremely concerned about the obvious double standards being enforced in the prosecution of people that commit racism or incite violence or hatred.

Roets concluded that AfriForum will monitor the matter meticulously to ensure that the offenders are prosecuted.