Protesters in Johannesburg call on US to release Venezuela's Maduro

Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the American consulate in Johannesburg on Saturday to protest the US intervention in Venezuela and capture of former president Nicolas Maduro.

The protests were led by members of the South African Communist Party and a number of trade unions.

“We delivered this memorandum following a lawful and very peaceful protest march to the United States consulate in Sandton," Irvin Jim, General Secretary of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) told the crowd.

"The purpose of this memorandum, the purpose of this memorandum is to formally condemn the illegal US military invasion of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (and to) demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and comrade Celia Flores."

"We are saying that the international rule of law, the human rights must be respected. We are saying that oil can be used to promote peace in the world, not war," said Mike Shingange, First Deputy of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. "That's why we are here to pledge solidarity and say to the people of Venezuela, we are with them and we're going to continue to do all we can up until they are liberated."

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his African National Congress party have also denounced US actions and called for Maduro’s immediate release.

Nomvula Mokonyane, the ANC's First Deputy Secretary-General, also spoke to the demonstrators:

“On behalf of the African National Congress, we really want to salute workers under the leadership of NUMSA for uniting all of us under one banner of international solidarity, a stand against imperialist aggression, as well as the dictatorship of one man who wants to break the sovereignty of each and every nation.”

South Africa has had tense relations with the US since President Trump returned to power. He has accused Pretoria of allowing a ‘genocide’ against the country’s white community and boycotted November’s G20 meeting in Johannesburg.

Earlier this month, protesters held a similar demonstration outside the US Embassy in Pretoria.