South Africans demonstrate and call for the president to resign.

South African police on Monday monitored protests by the country’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party, which is demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

JOHANNESBURG -- South African police on Monday monitored protests by the country’s leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party, which is demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The party urged all South Africans to participate in a national shutdown but there was a limited response in most of the country’s major cities.

EFF leader Julius Malema addressed a crowd of nearly 1,000 people in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, where he claimed the government tried to sabotage the planned national shutdown by preventing buses from transporting people to various marches.

Malema led a march by demonstrators through the streets of Pretoria, while other marches took place in other cities in South Africa.

There was a heavy police presence in Pretoria where police were deployed to monitor any potential violence and intimidation against people who are not participating in the protest.