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.

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.

The stadium at Bloemfontein, upgraded to a 45,000-seater for the 2010 soccer World Cup, overflowed yesterday with crowds that spilled outside, dancing and singing under a blazing sun. Dozens of buses lined up to drop off celebrants waiting for an afternoon address by Zuma.

Zuma has said the ANC will rule “until Jesus comes”, but the next few years will be critical for the party that has won a landslide victory in every election for the last 18 years.

The ANC describes itself as the home of the working class and the poor, but inequality has grown in recent years, even as a small black elite around the party have become multimillionaires flaunting lavish lifestyles.

Unemployment hovers around 36% and soars to 70% among young people. Half the country’s population lives on just 8% of the national income, according to the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

A warning sign came from the town of Clarens, where stone-throwing protesters smashed the windows of a bus that was to transport supporters to the centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein, 260km away.

Protesters, demanding ANC municipal leaders be fired for failing to deliver basic services like tap water, stoned vehicles and blocked the road to Bloemfontein, Talk Radio 702 reported.

Such protests have become daily events across the country, where political liberation has not been matched by economic emancipation, as Africa’s largest economy remains in the control of the white minority.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in fighting apartheid and is attending the celebrations, recently called for a tax on all whites who benefited from apartheid.

“Apartheid is not over,” American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said after the church ceremony, “the agricultural apartheid, the manufacturing apartheid, the banking apartheid, the shipping apartheid, the layers beneath the skin colour are now the next century’s challenge.”