Former ANCYL leader Julius Malema and spokesman Floyd Shivambu were ordered on Thursday to apologise to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille.

This stemmed from defamatory comments they made about her, said Zille's spokesman, Zak Mbhele.

The two, along with the youth league, were also ordered to retract the remarks they made in 2009, and pay Zille's legal fees.

Attorney Amanda Torr said the order was handed down by Western Cape High Court Judge Lee Bozalek in a closed chamber session.

Zille said she was very happy with the settlement.

"These court orders are a victory for constitutional democracy and the norms that the law sets out in terms of defamation," she said.

"There is no room for unfounded defamatory statements in our society and this ruling upholds that in clear and strong terms. Politics must be about issues, not gratuitous and baseless insults."

Zille initially wanted to sue Malema, Shivambu and the league for R1.4 million.

She said Shivambu had called her a "racist girl" and "sick woman" and claimed that her all-male executive were her boyfriends and concubines.

She also took issue with Malema calling her executive council a "group of racist Helen Zille garden boys" at a rally in Cato Manor, Durban, in February 2009.

At the same rally, he apparently referred to her as a "racist", "colonialist" and "imperialist".

In a special plea document, Malema stated that he and Zille were both public figures and thus engaged in public debates.