South Africa’s ruling ANC party fetes 111th anniversary

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party marked its 111th anniversary Sunday with celebratory events in Mangaung, Free State province, where the organization was founded in 1912.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was re-elected as the ANC party leader at a national conference in December last year, was expected to deliver an address to a crowd of supporters at a stadium outlining how the party plans to address the country’s many challenges.
The ANC is the oldest liberation movement against colonialism in Africa and led South Africa’s transition from white minority rule to democracy after it was unbanned in 1990. Its leader and struggle icon, Nelson Mandela, became the country’s first democratically elected president in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison alongside other ANC leaders for their anti-apartheid activities.
The anniversary comes amid a decline in electoral support for the party due to, among other things, rising levels of poverty and unemployment, failure to provide basic services to poor communities and lack of economic growth.