For the past 11 years, the M-Net Vuka! Awards have been the definitive benchmark against which local filmmakers already working within the sector and those seeking to enter the industry compete for what has developed into a significant accolade for filmmaking achievement in South Africa.
One of M-Net’s corporate social investment (CSI) projects, the Vuka! Awards (“Wake Up” in Nguni) were introduced in 1999 as a platform to reward and nurture South Africa’s filmmaking talent while providing vital exposure to social causes and charities via Public Service Announcements (PSAs).
M-Net and the DStv platform flights an average of 60 free charity commercials every year, with the top 30% of Vuka! Awards PSA entries being broadcast on M-Net and selected DStv channels into over one million homes in South Africa, the African continent and Indian Ocean Islands.
M-Net Cares is the CSI arm of the channel. While the company’s corporate social investment programmes are as diverse as the people they serve, they are united by common goals: to restore a human dimension to technological progress, to actively participate in social transformation at policy and grassroots level and contribute towards building the basis for a truly prosperous and enlightened society.
M-Net also invests actively in a broad range of Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives over and above the annual Vuka! Awards.
These include:
- The M-Net EDiT (Emerging Dynamics in Television) competition — The EDiT initiative was created to provide emerging film and television talent with genuine production opportunities within a real world television environment. Through partnership with industry-oriented educational institutions and professional associations, EDiT seeks to identify gifted learners and enhance their production portfolio. As part of the EDiT initiative, M-Net funds the making of five learner video/film productions.
- M-Net New Directions initiative — The widely-acclaimed filmmaking project, founded upon the principles of skills development and training, has seen the production of over 50 top-quality short films from the African continent. The films have gone on to generate much buzz through being broadcast on M-Net’s channels across the continent and at film festivals around the world. This year it sought to develop skills in the African film and television industry with M-Net making a tangible investment in the industry in Africa.
- M-Net raising funds for breast cancer — M-Net Cares, Cloud9Golf and Liberty Medical Scheme helped raise half a million rand for breast cancer. The 2010 campaign included three flagship golf days and 30 ambassador golf days nationwide with the pay off lines of ‘Playing golf, spreading the message’ and ‘Driving for the cause‘. The funds raised will focus solely on the education of women about breast cancer, particularly in disadvantaged areas, for early detection and medication, with the use of MNet’s Pink Drive Mobile Breast Cancer Units.