ANC celebrate 100th anniversary

Tens of thousands of chanting and dancing revellers waved the green and gold colours of the African National Congress as Africa’s oldest liberation movement celebrated its 100th anniversary Sunday.

African leaders and former heads of state, along with African kings and chieftains, attended a midnight ceremony where President Jacob Zuma lit a flame, which will stay alight the entire year, at the Bloemfontein church where black intellectuals and activists founded the party in 1912.

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 formerly declared a terrorist group by the United States.

ANC president Jacob Zuma renewed the party’s pledge to fight poverty, employment and inequality.