There will be no bloodshed in the quest for land, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema said on Wednesday.

"Mama [Winnie Madikizela-Mandela] wanted the land and she said she did not want the madness of driving white people over the sea.

"We say that all the time in the EFF, but it does not suit the narrative of those that own the media," Malema said at the party's memorial service for Madikizela-Mandela in Brandfort, Free State.

He said the EFF was being projected as a party that did not want white people in SA.

"We want white people, there is no problem with white people. White people have naturalised here. They are like our trees and mountains; like our nature."

Black people in the majority

He said if someone said they did not want white people, it was tantamount to saying they did not want trees on earth.

"We would be an ugly nation without white people. We complement one another and that is what makes us a unique nation. Our demand for land is not driving whites to the sea, all we are saying to the white people is: 'Share the land.'"

He said because black people were in the majority, they should own the bigger portion.

"You are in the minority, [but] we shall give you space."

He said black people could not be allocated land by white people.

"It must be the other way around. With the policy of willing buyer, willing seller, even when you have the money, if there is no land [then] you cannot sell the land."

He said that recently there were no willing sellers.

"You are all going to die like Winnie Mandela and become a landless ancestor.

"You are born in this country without land and when you die, we struggle to bury you because they chase you out of the farms when you die."

Malema said in the past, the first sign of being a responsible adult was to be able to take care of inherited land.

He said there was nothing for people without land.

"We are not fighting white people. We are having a robust debate about land."

Malema said it was not true that the party wanted to commit "white genocide".

"No white man has been killed in South Africa because of the land… There is no case in South Africa of a white person being killed because of the land.

"There is no case in South Africa of any white person being forced out of his property, even [by the] the EFF."

He said people had merely gone to live on unoccupied land.

"We are not going to do so by killing any white person. There will never be blood, and that is what Mama taught us."