INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

‘Tainted Heroes’ Documentary Back In The Spotlight As African National Congress Calls It Propaganda

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 12:09 PST, Feb 8, 2016

Afriforum, a civil rights group in South Africa, is releasing the documentary Tainted Heroes early this year. The documentary tells the story of the African National Congress (ANC), the current ruling party of South Africa. The ANC made the accusation that the documentary is nothing more than propaganda, which is defined as any content that is considered biased or exaggerated and meant to promote a political cause.

IOL News reported the ANC dismissed the film because they claimed Tainted Heroes focused more on how the ANC targeted rival black groups rather than overthrowing apartheid. The synopsis for the two-hour film Tainted Heroes said that the ANC set out to eliminate rival groups.

“…explains how the ANC successfully implemented a predetermined programme of violence, fear and propaganda to eliminate political rivals and establish itself as the sole representative of black aspirations in South Africa. It illuminates how the ANC’s armed struggle was more a struggle against black rival organisations than against the apartheid system.”

The documentary also depicts a form of killing called “necklacing,” in which a tire is placed around the victim’s neck and set on fire. It was a tactic allegedly used by the ANC to murder those it claimed were collaborators with the apartheid government.

ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa accused Afriforum, who created Tainted Heroes, of spreading propaganda and being hardcore racists similar to the Ku Klux Klan. He also accused Afriforum of trying eliminate the legitimacy of the ANC by cooperating with the apartheid government.

As previously reported by Inquisitr, Tainted Heroes, set for an early 2016 release, tells the story of the African National Congress, a once marginalized black group in South Africa that rose to power by eliminating all other rival black groups to become a major force in South African politics. Their rise to power began with the Soweto Uprising in 1976.

The ANC, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, had a military wing called the MK, or Umkhonto we Sizwe as it is known in Zulu. They received their training in Vietnam and were supported by both the Soviet and Chinese communist regimes. The tactics they learned were used to eliminate their enemies.

Channel 24 reported that writer Ernst Roets, the deputy CEO of Afriforum, said that Tainted Heroes wasn’t meant to be anti-ANC.

“Although many might believe that it is an anti-ANC film, it is not. The film tells an alternative narrative from what is usually heard.”

Roets said that the general perception of the ANC during the 1980s is that they were heroes, while everyone else was considered the villains. The documentary includes interviews with those who came from the rival black groups involved including Strike Thokoane, deputy president of the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo), who said the ANC actually contributed to the violence that occurred during the Soweto Uprising.

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, another rival party to the ANC, said that the perception the ANC was made up of heroes, while everyone else was villains, is a narrative that has been carefully preserved.

“In the stories that the people have been told, it is clearly understood that the ANC are the good guys.”

Tainted Heroes features a variety of political actors, experts and commentators including Strike Thokoane and Mangosuthu Buthelezi. One of the central themes of the documentary is called the “Peoples’ War Strategy.” This led to powerful and violent attacks against rival liberation movements. The purpose was to make the ANC the solitary representative of people in South Africa.

[Photo by Afriforum/YouTube]

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