Factbox: ANC rules South Africa with apartheid struggle mantle

(Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 100th birthday on Sunday.

The long-banned liberation movement took power in 1994 after Nelson Mandela negotiated an end to apartheid with the white-minority government.

Capitalizing on its role as the standard bearer in the fight against apartheid, the party has dominated politics since then, but bitter faction-fighting and accusations of rampant corruption have raised questions about how long it will continue to lead Africa's biggest economy.

Following are details about the ANC:

* ORIGINS:

- In January 1912, the South African Native National Congress was formed in the central city of Bloemfontein in response to legislation denying political rights to the black population.

- It changed its name to the African National Congress in 1923. Its early leaders, black professionals, wanted a gradual extension of the electoral franchise as in colonial power Britain.

* APARTHEID:

- The white Afrikaner National Party's electoral victory in 1948 heralded the systematic racial discrimination of apartheid.

Young black African radicals such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, who had formed the ANC Youth League, pressured the movement into a more aggressive campaign of resistance.

- The ANC backed the first mass campaign against the government in 1952, when thousands of blacks were arrested for defying discriminatory laws. It organized the 1955 "Congress of the People" which adopted the Freedom Charter, calling for a non-racial democracy.

- The apartheid government banned the ANC in March 1960 after the Sharpeville Massacre when 69 protesters were killed.

* A NEW ERA:

- The ANC helped stimulate international pressure on Pretoria through sanctions, cultural and sporting boycotts and diplomatic isolation.

- A government decision in December 1989 to release seven veteran ANC leaders including Sisulu was a sign the government recognized it had to talk with its old adversary.

- President F.W. de Klerk finally lifted the ban on the ANC in February 1990, and months later the movement suspended its 30-year-old armed struggle against white rule.

- Nelson Mandela, who had been sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy and sabotage, was freed after 27 years in 1990. He led the ANC to victory in the first all-race election in 1994.

- Thabo Mbeki replaced Mandela as head of the ANC in 1997, and was elected president in 1999.

* PARTY SPLIT:

- Rivalry between Mbeki, a Xhosa, and Jacob Zuma, a Zulu, plunged the party into one of the worst crises in its history. Mbeki sacked Zuma as his deputy in 2005 after he was implicated in a graft trial.

- Zuma triumphed in a bruising power struggle with Mbeki, whom he defeated in the ANC leadership race in December 2007. The party pushed Mbeki out of office.

- Zuma has moved to consolidate his power ahead of the 2012 party election. If he wins the race as party president, he is almost assured of a second term as president given the ANC's stranglehold over national politics.

* YOUTH LEADER'S CHALLENGE

- The party faced further turmoil when ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, a flamboyant 30-year-old populist, called for nationalization of South Africa's mines to redistribute the country's wealth.

The call struck a chord with the legions of young unemployed, but sent shivers through the local and foreign business community and challenged ANC government leaders who had been following market-oriented economic policies.

In November, an ANC disciplinary panel found him guilty of bringing the movement into disrepute, and expelled him for five years. He appealed the suspension.

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)