Cheers at chants of 'one American, one bullet' outside US embassy in Pretoria

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PRETORIA - A threat of 'one bullet, one American' was cheered when shouted outside the United States embassy in Pretoria on Thursday as hundreds of picketers protested US foreign policy in the Middle East. “The Americans are the biggest terrorists around the world. They committed terrorism against Cuba, Venezuela, and many other countries in South America. Now they have decided that the Middle East is their home base. Our message is that there is no home for you, otherwise you will go home in your coffins. Very soon, you will hear a slogan of 'one bullet one American," said Sheikh Shuaib Booley, chairperson of the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Council of South Africa, to cheers from the crowd. Booley led the crowd in chanting “Allahu Akbar” as embassy employees watched from a distance. He was later stopped by officials before he could enter the building as part of a delegation set to hand over a memorandum. Also at the protest was SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila, who said his organisation and alliance partners would be taking part in rolling mass action to protest US meddling in the region.

“The entire alliance movement will be organising a series of activities here at the US Embassy (in Pretoria), at their offices in Durban, at their offices in Cape Town, and in Johannesburg.

"We will be [taking part in] rolling mass action activities across the board until the USA leaves the Middle East. It must withdraw its entire force out of the Middle East,” said Mapaila while addressing the crowd.

Police were closely guarding the embassy premises as the crowd of SACP and ANC members, and others, criticised president Donald Trump for the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq earlier this month.

“We will be rolling-out this mass action as the alliance to ensure that at least peace is attained worldwide. In particular, the US government should know that we are unhappy about its action of destabilising nations of the world,” said Mapaila.

“We oppose US imperialism. We oppose US aggression. We are for all humanity, that we should all live in peace. We are saying no to war, no to attacks, and no to sanctions against democratic states including the Islamic State of Iran.”

Clever Banganayi, deputy general secretary of the Friends of Cuba Society, told the gathering that “imperialist America” should remove its military from the Middle East.

“The US has imposed so many sanctions on the Iranian people to cause havoc in the country. They are looking at getting oil from [Iran]. This is not the first country they have done that to. They have done that in Latin America, Venezuela, and in Bolivia,” said Banganayi.

Imam Seyyed Abdollah Hoseyni of the Islamic Centre for Africa added his organisation’s message of support, leading the crowd in frenzied chants of “death to USA”.

“Soon, you are going to leave Middle East, and we are going to celebrate our victory. The situation is going to be worse than it is now. Take your stuff and go away, or we are going to send you off in coffins. You killed Soleimani,” said Hoseyni.