VENTERSDORP (Reuters) - The party of murdered South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche has said it will not take violent action to avenge the death of its leader after his brutal killing on Saturday sparked fears of racial unrest.
Terre'blanche, who led the Afrikaner Resistance Movement that pushed to preserve apartheid in the 1990s, was hacked and battered to death by two black farm workers in a suspected dispute over pay.
Leaders of his party, which has been marginalised in recent years, initially vowed to avenge his death, blaming it on sentiment whipped up by the leader of the youth league of the ruling African National Congress.
But a spokesman for Terre'blanche's AWB told reporters on Monday that the party was not planning violent action.
"The AWB is not going to engage in any form of violent retaliation to avenge Mr Terre'Blanche's death," Pieter Steyn, a general in the AWB, said. "We appeal for people to remain calm. Anyone engaging in any form of violence is not doing it as AWB."
South African leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, have also urged calm since the killing. The so-called "Rainbow Nation", already saddled with a reputation for crime and violence, will be in the international spotlight in a little over two months when it hosts the soccer World Cup.