Tainted Heroes
A Guest Post From South Africa
Today we have a guest post from our friend Ernst van Zyl ("Conscious Caracal" on X), Head of Public Relations at AfriForum, in which he introduces a documentary by his colleague Ernst Roets about the dark roots of the ANC. Following that, we'll close with a brief market note about a recent South African trade we made.
Tainted Heroes
South African documentary exposes the ANC’s violent and chaotic rise to power
Since US President Donald Trump fired his first shot across the bow at the South African government in February 2025, the country has found itself in the eye of a diplomatic storm, a storm that has exposed some of the darkest secrets to the outside world of the African National Congress (ANC)-led regime. However, as the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Not only were the uncomfortable realities of the Expropriation Act, race-based laws, farm murders, and the “Kill the Boer”-chant revealed to outsiders looking in, but some disturbing revelations about power, propaganda and prejudice in South Africa were also made known to those living here.
To understand the chaotic past 30 years of South Africa under ANC rule, one needs to understand the bloody history of the ANC. Therefore, the South African civil rights organisation AfriForum released the documentary film Tainted Heroes. This film lays bare in meticulous detail how the ANC rose to power in the aftermath of the Soweto Uprisings in 1976. The documentary deals with the ANC’s military training received in various African countries as well as the lesser-known story of how the ANC underwent strategic training in Vietnam to implement a brutal “people’s war” strategy against its rival organisations.
The film was initially released in 2016, however, in 2025 it has been made available for free on the AfriForum YouTube channel, as South Africa and the ANC are once again in the global spotlight.
ou can support future documentaries that expose uncomfortable realities about South Africa, both past and present, as well as state-proof solutions in South Africa, here.
South African Political Risk Impacts Valuations
Last week in the Portfolio Armor Substack, we placed a trade on the top gold miner in our system, which happens to be headquartered in South Africa.
In addition to being one of our top ten names, this gold miner had a valuation rating of 9 (out of 10) from Chartmill, despite being highly profitable. South Africa's political risk makes it shares trade for less than they might if the company were based elsewhere. We're still bullish on it, but if you'd like to limit your risk, you can always use our iPhone app to hedge.
If you'd like to stay in touch
You can follow Ernst van Zyl on X here, on YouTube here, and support his work at AfriForum here.
You can scan for optimal hedges for individual securities, find our current top ten names, and create hedged portfolios on our website. You can also follow Portfolio Armor on X here, or become a free subscriber to our trading Substack using the link below (we're using that for our occasional emails now).