Demonstrators gather against Bush visit

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 6 (UPI) -- Some 500 people protested in Johannesburg Saturday, calling on South African President Thabo Mbeki not to host President George Bush.

"Bush, you're not welcome here," read one poster held aloft by demonstrators. "Mbeki, do not embrace Bush," read another.

Bush's first official trip to five Afican nations is scheduled to begin Monday.

A spokesman for the "Anti-War Coalition" demonstrators, Salim Vally, told South Afica's Independent newspaper that the Bush administration replaced the "dictatorship of Saddam Hussein with an equally ruthless occupation of Iraq with U.S. troops."

"Bush is a warmonger," Vally said.

"(Bush) is coming to South Africa to spread the power, the domination and the imperialist agenda of the United States," demonstrator Dennis Brutus said. "He is inviting President Mbeki to embrace the plans for Washington to dominate the world. We must resist those plans."