Curve ball

I, at least, didn't see this coming. The ANC in South Africa turns 100 this weekend. And to start festivities, the great and the good of the party headed to the golf course. Yes, a couple of men would be chasing a little ball around acres of manicured lawns.
Was there any better way of celebrating a significant milestone in South Africa - and, in fact, the continent? This, afterall, is Africa's oldest liberation party.
It is also the incubator of two Nobel Peace Prize winners. So, a church service perhaps - or what about a mass rally? No, that would all come. Let's settle for an early morning tee-off time at a Bloemfontein club.
The question is whether or not the ruling party's image makers stopped to consider what message this would send - particularly to the many weighed down by the frustration of not finding a job in South Africa.
Interestingly some of my colleagues don't see what the fuss is about. It's a symbol of the aspirational drive of ruling party big-wigs, they say. And to challenge the ANC on it would be 'nit-picking'.
Perhaps they have a point. Or perhaps it's a sign of a party which many say has veered dangerously off course from its days fighting injustice and exclusion.