ANC marks 100 years with joy and sadness
BLOEMFONTEIN: Tens of thousands of chanting and dancing revellers waved the green and gold colors of the African National Congress (ANC) as Africa’s oldest liberation movement celebrated its 100th anniversary, though many South Africans say the party has not delivered on its promises since taking power in 1994.
A dozen African leaders and more former heads of state along with African kings and chieftains attended a midnight ceremony yesterday where President Jacob Zuma lit a flame, expected to stay alight the entire year, at the red brick, tinroofed Wesleyan church where black intellectuals and activists founded the party in 1912.
“The ANC mobilised the South African people across the racial, gender and class divide. The ANC, a disciplined force of the left with a bias toward the poor, is also a broad church that is home to all,” Zuma said.
“Its membership comprises nationalists, Marxists, Africanists, workers, capitalists, women, men, rural, urban, rich and poor. This has becomeoneof the biggest strengths of this glorious movement.”
Absent because of his frailty was Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president who is just six years younger than his movement.
The world icon was jailed for 27 years by the racist white government and his organisation was declared a terrorist group by the United States.
Joy at the ANC’S leading role in ending white minority rule in 1994 was tinged with sadness over the its failure to bring a better life to most South Africans, and corruption scandals that have embroiled its members in recent years. — AP