About 1,000 demonstrators marched peacefully to the U.S. Embassy Wednesday, protesting President Bush's war in Iraq and trip to Africa.
"We stand together with millions of people throughout the world and say that the biggest weapon of mass destruction is George W. Bush," Salim Vally of the Anti-War Coalition said in a speech.
About two dozen police officers and a handful of embassy employees looked on as demonstrators burned several small American flags emblazoned with slogans against Bush, who was visiting South Africa Wednesday as part of his five-day, five-nation Africa tour.
The demonstration brought together a wide variety of groups including the Anti-War Coalition, members of the governing African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, trade unions, civil society groups and members of a militant black organization.
Anti-American sentiment has been growing in South Africa since the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The country has a large Muslim minority and many here believe Washington defied the United Nations and overstated its reasons for war.
Former President Nelson Mandela, the popular leader and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, has harshly criticized Bush for going to war without a U.N. mandate.
Dennis Brutus, a former political prisoner of apartheid, led the crowd Wednesday with chants of "down with Bush."