The dismissal of a Pretoria-based South African National Defence Force (SANDF) major over hate speech on social media has been welcomed by commentators.

Calls for action to be taken had been mounting since March‚ following Major M.V Mohlala's inflammatory remarks on Facebook‚ relating to the murder of a 76-year-old retired professor and brutal assault on his elderly friend by house robbers in Johannesburg.

The major's remarks advocating violence against white people was made on a post initially written by the 80-year-old assault victim's son‚ who had asked why the criminals had kicked his father in his face while his hands were tied behind his back. He shared a photograph showing the severe injuries sustained by his father‚ a retired reverend.

The SANDF‚ SA Human Rights Commission and Equality Court were amongst the institutions asked to probe the inflammatory remarks made by Mohlala.

On Wednesday‚ Kobus Marais‚ a Democratic Alliance MP‚ thanked Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula following the major's dismissal.

"The DA condemns such comments as their sole purpose is to sow division in a country that is still healing from the injustices of the past‚" Marais said.

"As a member of our armed forces‚ Mohlala should have upheld his mandate of protecting all citizens. Instead‚ he chose to incite violence and racial hatred through his Facebook post.

"The DA will continue to speak out against racism and will take the necessary action to ensure that all those who attempt to cause division in our nation face the consequences‚" said Marais.

AfriForum said the dismissal of Mohlala had come after a lengthy process of internal reviews and investigations by the SANDF.

Willie Spies‚ AfriForum’s legal representative‚ said the organisation had made a written request six weeks ago requesting the reason from the Minister for the decision to only warn Mohlala at the time.