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Clearly, given the many problems afflicting the nation, South Africa should be avoided and the focus should be on other markets instead. For this reason, we have a Zacks ETF Rank #5 (Strong Sell) on EZA, suggesting that we believe underperformnace is in the cards for this fund in the near term as well.

In such a scenario, iShares MSCI South Africa ETF ( EZA ) turned out be one of the worst performing country ETFs to start the year. The fund has delivered a negative return of 9.56% year to date, as the fund continues to be affected by troubles surrounding the country ( Three Country ETFs Struggling in 2013 ).

EZA in Focus

EZA is one of the main sources to play the South African economy and provides exposure to 51 securities. The fund manages an asset base of $506 million and trades at volume levels of more than 200,000 shares a day.

At 12.82%, EZA allocates a hefty proportion to the Mining sector occupying the fourth position, after Financials (28.4%), Consumer Discretionary (18.8%) and Telecommunication (13.46%).

So it can be said EZA's heavy exposure to mining companies may have impacted its performance to a large extent. The recent turbulence in the yellow metal and mining companies seemed to have a negative impact on the ETF ( Top Mining ETFs in Focus ).

The fund has also not been able to do much in minimizing stock-specific risk either, as nearly 55% of the asset base goes towards the top ten holdings. Among individual holdings, MTN Group, Naspers and Sasol occupy the top three positions in the fund with asset allocation of 11.81%, 10.13% and 9.02%, respectively.

Mr Bond, u did watch the video I take? u did notice they are both blonde....

The platinum market swung into the biggest shortage since 2002 last year as supply fell to a 12-year low on strikes and stoppages in top producer South Africa, according to Johnson Matthey Plc. (JMAT) The palladium deficit was the biggest since 2000.

The platinum shortage was 375,000 ounces last year and a “slight deficit” is possible this year if investment continues to grow, London-based Johnson Matthey said today in a report. Platinum supply fell 13 percent to 5.64 million ounces, as total demand declined 0.6 percent, it said. Lower palladium sales from Russian state stockpiles and constrained output in Russia and South Africa is “a recipe for an under-supplied market” and higher prices, Johnson Matthey said.

“The supply that we see at the moment is being balanced by autocatalyst, jewelry and industrial demand,” Mark Bedford, managing director for precious metals at Johnson Matthey, said in an interview before the report. “Investment really becomes a balancing figure. If investment demand continues to be positive in 2013, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see a similar sort of deficit as the one that we saw this year.”

Both metals are mostly used in vehicle pollution-control devices and jewelry, with palladium favored mainly for gasoline-burning engines in the U.S. and Asia and platinum for diesels in Europe. Platinum holdings in exchange-traded funds expanded 11 percent this year after growing 16 percent in 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Palladium ETF holdings are up 13 percent in 2013 after increasing 11 percent last year, the data show.