Bloemfontein, South Africa: Africa's oldest liberation movement, South Africa's ruling ANC, celebrated its centenary yesterday, with 100,000 people at a rally where President Jacob Zuma hopes to reassert his leadership.
Tens of thousands streamed into a stadium in the scorching central city of Bloemfontein which wraps up weekend celebrations for the African National Congress, which Nelson Mandela led to power after the fall of apartheid.
The celebrations have also given the party a chance to remind the public of its storied legacy, amid frustration at corruption scandals and unfulfilled promises to the poor.
"Heartiest congratulations on achieving a significant milestone, and I pray that they will be true to where they came from," anti-apartheid hero Desmond Tutu told the public broadcaster SABC.
Mandela, who became South Africa's first black President in 1994, is increasingly frail at 93 and did not attend, but his image was present in the stadium, awash in ANC colours of green, gold and black as popular musicians took to the stage.
Rally flame
Yesterday's events began at midnight with the lighting of a centenary torch, blessed by Tutu in the Wesleyan Church where the ANC was founded on January 8, 1912. The flame was carried to the rally.
In his address, Zuma is expected to lay out the party's path forward as he seeks to rein in divisions ahead of year-end party elections where some of his erstwhile backers are now pushing for his removal. None of those opposed to him, including fiery youth leader Julius Malema will be allowed to speak at the rally.
"Already he has shown that, because there are not any [other] speakers who are going to speak," youth league member Tefo Labaka, 28, said.
"For now, there is unity because we have to unite for this centenary. But, I believe after this event, there is going to be a big division," he said.
Reaching out to the ANC's diverse membership, events included a golf tournament, ritual animal slaughter and concerts. An inter-faith service was held at the Wesleyan Church yesterday.
The party also thanked its international supporters who sheltered its exiles during apartheid and campaigned for the end of white-minority rule. "No longer in South Africa will you see signs: Europeans only, non-Europeans only, non-Europeans and dogs not allowed. All of South Africa is now free. We have won our dignity as human beings," party veteran Ahmad Kathrada, who was jailed alongside Mandela, said.
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday hailed the ANC. "It is incredible to see the changes in South Africa that the ANC has helped to bring about," Cameron wrote in a letter to Zuma.
Challenges
But, there were also calls to address Africa's challenges. "We have to fight poverty and all its offshoots of hunger, ignorance, disease, crime, corruption and above all, exploitation of one mind by another," Zambia's independence hero Kenneth Kaunda said.
Founded to fight discrimination, the ANC was banned by South Africa's white apartheid rulers in 1960, and its leaders were jailed four years later. Nearly three decades later, the crumbling regime released Mandela, who oversaw the peaceful transition that set the path for huge wins in regular polls ever since.
