Rising anti-American sentiment fueled by discontent over the U.S.-led war in Iraq is casting a shadow over President Bush's visit to South Africa. Scores of disgruntled South Africans have protested this week outside the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria and the consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town. "The whole African tour is a diversion away from Iraq," said Shaheed Mahomed, the chairman of the Anti-War Coalition in Cape Town. "This do-gooder visit is in response to a new Vietnam syndrome rising, as more and more body bags go to the U.S." Other protests by members of the governing African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, trade unions and civil society groups are planned during the visit that begins Tuesday night and ends Friday. The growth of anti-American and anti-Bush sentiment in South Africa has been accelerated by recent criticism from former President Nelson Mandela. "For anybody, especially the leader of a super state, to act outside the United Nations is something that must be condemned by everybody," Mandela said last month. In the weeks before the start of the Iraq war, Mandela called Bush arrogant and shortsighted. He also accused Bush of undermining the United Nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human beings," Mandela said in January. The comments by Mandela, the widely popular leader and hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, have a special resonance with South Africa's large Muslim population and with millions of poor blacks who still believe Western governments only want to loot the resources of Africa. Besides resentment over the war in Iraq, South Africa's generally good relations with Washington also have been troubled by the U.S. decision to end military aid to 35 countries, including South Africa, that have not backed the U.S. position demanding immunity for Americans in the International Criminal Court. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A demonstrator holds a poster of a dead Iraqi child, outside the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, during a protest against President George W. Bush's visit to Africa, July 9, 2003. REUTERS/ Juda Ngwenya