The Club’s annual dinner was hosted by Cape Town Section until 1984 when – for the first time – it was hosted by the Magaliesberg Section. On this occasion the address was by Dr The Hon G van N Viljoen, Minister of National Education. Having broken the tradition of the dinner being held in Cape Town, various Sections hosted the Annual Dinners, often to celebrate specific anniversaries or events, sometimes for no reason but for the fun of it. These have been mostly formal events with guest speakers who include, over the years, the likes of Doug Scott, Stephen Venables (hosted by the Stellenbosch section), Paul Fatti – all of whom need no introduction. The 1999 event was hosted by Free State section to mark the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first admission of women as full members of the Club. To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Johannesburg Section hosted the the 2017 event was hosted by the Magaliesberg Section as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.
2016 was the year that MCSA (and Cape Town Section) celebrated the 125th anniversary. The dinner was hosted by the Cape Town Section at Moyo Restaurant nestled inside Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens at the foot of one of the 7 wonders of the world. The guest speaker on this occasion was Dr Xavier Ledoux, a renowned French anaesthetis who pioneered the technique of regional anaesthesia for mountain accident patients. On the menu were mopani worms – an African delicacy – not universally appreciated though! More milestones followed – with Worcester Section hosting the annual dinner in 2018 on their 125th anniversary.
The ‘formal’ mould was broken by the South Cape Section which hosted the 2022 event which took the form of an outdoor spit braai!
