Joy, sadness as Mandela's party turns 100

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa -- Tens of thousands of chanting and dancing revelers waved the green and gold colors of the African National Congress as Africa's oldest liberation movement celebrated its 100th anniversary yesterday.

Many South Africans say, however, that 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 kings and chieftains, attended a midnight ceremony. 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 frail health 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 the United States once declared his organization a terrorist group.

Joy at the ANC's leading role in ending white minority rule in 1994 was tinged with sadness over its failure to bring a better life to most South Africans, and over corruption scandals that have embroiled its members in recent years.

The stadium at Bloemfontein, upgraded to 45,000 seats for the 2010 soccer World Cup, overflowed yesterday. Crowds spilled outside, dancing and singing under a blazing sun.

"We need to ensure that our program of transforming our country is accelerated and taken to new steps," Zuma said in an afternoon address, flanked by an aide holding an umbrella.

He acknowledged problems confronting the ANC, saying it needs to take "urgent and practical steps to restore the core values, stamp out factionalism and promote political discipline."

Thousands left the stadium during Zuma's 90-minute speech, which was devoted mainly to the history of the ANC. It was unclear whether that was because of the heat, because people had to leave town for lack of accommodation or whether they were sending Zuma a message.

The next few years will be critical for the party that has won a landslide victory in every election for 18 years. Inequality has grown, even as a small black elite around the party has become multimillionaires flaunting lavish lifestyles.

Unemployment hovers around 36 percent and soars to 70 percent among the young.

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 celebrations in Bloemfontein, 160 miles away. Protesters demanded ANC municipal leaders be fired for failing to deliver basic services like tap water.

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

"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 color are now the next century's challenge."