Joy tinged with sadness as ANC turns 100

TENS of thousands of chanting and dancing revelers waved the green and gold colours of the African National Congress as Africa’s oldest liberation movement celebrated its 100th anniversary yesterday, though many South Africans say the party hasn’t 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 where President Jacob Zuma lit a flame, expected to stay alight the entire year, at the red brick, tin-roofed Wesleyan 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.