If there is support for the war, it comes from the white minority.
By Barnaby Phillips    
BBC southern Africa correspondent.

The US consulate in Johannesburg is in the smart traditionally Jewish neighbourhood of Killarney; hardly fertile ground for anti-American sentiment.

Yet ever since the start of the war, there has been a 24-hour vigil by protesters at the consulate gate: and when they call on passing motorists to beep their horns in solidarity, many drivers oblige.


The invasion of Iraq is unpopular in South Africa.

Most people resent what they see as blatant American aggression.

This country's moral leaders, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are appalled.

Several dozen South Africans went to Baghdad as human shields; thousands have marched in the streets in protest.

But judging from the radio phone-in programmes and chats with friends, there is also a racial divide.

In so far as there is support for the war, it comes from the white minority, just as it did after 11 September.

Zimbabwe paradox

Many white South Africans instinctively see themselves as part of the West and support Britain and America in times of crisis; many non-whites adopt the opposite position.

Whites have been heard to grumble, wondering why the government is such an outspoken opponent of a war it could not possibly hope to avert, when it is so silent on the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where it could exert real influence if it so chose.

It is ironic then that one of the reasons President Thabo Mbeki is opposed to the war is because it is diverting attention and money away from Africa, and its pressing concerns.

His own New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) is now on the back-burner.

Africa is once again in the shadows at a time of a global crisis.