Thousands attend centenary celebrations

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Bloemfontein - Zolani Matu, 38, travelled more than 1 000km from Cape Town to Bloemfontein to be part of the centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday.

Matu said he had undertaken the journey because he owed it to the party.

He was among the thousands of ANC supporters who arrived at the party's birthplace in Bloemfontein on Sunday to join celebrations as the party, founded on 8 January 1912, turned 100 years old.

Buses were hired to ferry members from all over the country to Mangaung. Some joined a night vigil held at the University of the Free State on Saturday, while others slept in vehicles and on pavements.

"This is my ANC. It's more than a political party, it's a movement, a home for many of us, so I thought I owe it to the founders and everybody who had led it to be here today," Matu said.

"One hundred years is not a short time, few political parties finish a century intact as the ANC has [done] so it's a big day for all of us," he said.

Thabo Seepe from Johannesburg said for him, the ANC's 100 years of existence was a sign of how "solid" the party's foundation was. "It shows that the ANC was strong from birth. Any architect will tell you for a building to stay strong, it needs to be strong from the foundation."

Ayabonga Mbebe was only two years old when the ANC claimed victory during South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994.

Now 20-years-old, Mbebe says she has learned a lot about the country's liberation movement.
"The ANC remains the future of South Africa. Its leaders took us this far. It's a free country, people have choices but mine is still the ANC."

The ANC has said the centenary celebrations will continue throughout 2012 with monthly events that will be spread across all provinces.

Various Presidents General and Presidents of the ANC, the collectives that led the ANC, as well as the issues of the times will be highlighted in a series of lectures, said party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu.