Politically Aweh NPC

Introduction: Strengthen the media, strengthen democracy

South Africa’s democracy is teetering, the country’s large population of young people, disillusioned, disengaged and, without youth-oriented media content, vulnerable to the wash of disinformation and populism sweeping the country.

Politically Aweh: Pronounced ah- weh, this is a colloquial term popular among young South Africans. A casual greeting or way of agreeing with someone, we like the double play with its homophone, aware.

Politically Aweh is an award-winning, youth-oriented, weekly news show dedicated to countering this scenario by helping young South Africans ‘get aweh’ (i.e. raise their awareness) and get involved in democratic issues. We provide trustworthy information on current affairs and significant social issues that speak specifically to their interests and experiences in a way that is fresh, fun, and fearlessly truthful. We use popular formats youth consume, such as video, text, and audio posted on all social media platforms and shared through a wide variety of traditional and community media channels. The result we are working towards is a population of young South Africans with greater media literacy, political savvy and increased participation in civic life. These, we believe, are essential elements of a strong democracy.

Our areas of focus are Civic and Voter Education, Climate Change and Environment, Human Rights, Governance, and Corporate Accountability.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to build democracy, civic participation, and ‘aweh’ness, through accessible, quality content for young people which

provides nuanced insight into current affairs in South Africa and the region

engages and informs citizens, especially younger citizens, about issues that impact their rights and society;

attracts, articulates, illuminates, and empowers meaningful engagement with pressing social issues;

and builds a cohort of citizens who are equipped to positively participate in political and civic life.

Organisational profile

Politically Aweh began as a YouTube channel created by one man and his friends in 2017 and launched as a nonprofit in 2022 by an incredible team. We have secured funding to scale the organisation and produced astute, accessible, and relevant media. Our content is posted on all the popular social media platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X. It is also broadcast on Cape Town TV, a free-to-air community broadcaster, available nationally via DStv, and on the Sentech FreeVision Play app.

Politically Aweh’s team consists of creative professionals, journalists from leading local news publications, and some of South Africa’s most recognisable and awarded comedians, such as Angel Campey, KG Mokgadi, Siv Ngesi, and Céline Tshika. The leadership consists of Stephen Horn, Founder, CEO and Creative Director, and JM Henning, COO and Senior Producer. Our board is chaired by Karen Gabriels, (CFO at WWF).

Despite our youth, Politically Aweh has a substantial following, and several prestigious awards. Local awards include Winner of the Inside the Greenhouse Award; Winner of Best Online Content in the 16th Annual SAFTA Award; Winner of Perfect Pitch in the South African Media Innovation Program; and Finalist in Best Social Commentary of the DSTV Content Creator Awards. We were also given special mention in the CMCC Climate Change Communication Award for our climate change series.

Our satirical video highlighting government failings in providing reliable energy to South Africans won the SAFTA Award, gained international recognition on Al Jazeera and was showcased in dozens of media outlets. It also solicited a rabid response from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, demonstrating to young people our collective ability to hold power to account.

We are very proud of our community engagement track record, which includes screenings of our content through Sunshine Cinema as well as its use in schools, universities, and civil society organisations across the country. Among those who first learned about climate change from us is Otsile Nkadimeng, who today is a leader in the South African climate movement. We love this example of impact when it comes to aweh~ness leading to civic engagement.

While we are currently the only youth-focused satirical news show in South Africa we don’t work alone. We are part of a considerable network of allies across the country and continent, including

the African Satire network run by Magamba Network (Zimbabwe),

Defend Our Democracy, Jamlab, The Outlier, Bashwax, Quote This Woman+, WITS Department of Journalism, UCT’s Centre for Film and Media Studies, and the South Africa Media Innovation Program.

Our distribution partners include the Daily Maverick, Cape Town TV (also broadcast regionally and nationally on Dstv and the FreeVision Play app).

College and university lecturers use our videos as supplementary material in fields such as political science (UKZN), public administration and local governance (MANCOSA), and economics (NWU).

We also have extensive links within civil society, including Sunshine Cinema, My Vote Counts, Defend Our Democracy, OUTA, Helen Suzman Foundation, Youth@SAIIA, Civics Academy, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, and 350 Africa.

Collaboration undoubtedly amplifies our reach and validates the importance of our work. Organisations advocating for causes aligned with our content actively share our videos and tag us in relevant conversations on social media. Most notably, our explainer video on climate change in isiXhosa was used extensively in community workshops by organisations in rural parts of the country.

Who is our Audience?

Our primary target audience is young South Africans aged 16-35; they are online, mostly urban, and English-speaking.

On our anchor platform YouTube, Politically Aweh speaks to approximately 17,000 subscribers, and on supporting channels such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X, an additional —- . Politically Aweh achieved over a million collective views across all platforms and gained just under 7000 new followers in the 1st six months of 2024.

A secondary target audience has been those we can reach through traditional media. Our content is broadcast on Cape Town TV (free-to-air and nationally on Dstv channel 263), where we achieved a viewership of 6300 to 40,000, and on the FreeVision Play app. Our content is shared in the Daily Maverick, an online newspaper read by over 1.7 million people each month, and we publish podcasts to audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts as a companion series to our YouTube explainers. Our medium-term plan is for our audio content to be broadcast on community radio stations around the country.

Problem statement

South Africa’s democracy has hit an all-time low, with only 58% of registered voters, and less than 40% of eligible voters casting their vote in the 2024 elections. The gap between the eligible and the registered voters is also growing, driven by the low registration rate among youth. But perhaps most alarming is the interpretation of these figures: mass disillusionment, disenchantment and disconnect with South Africa’s democracy, particularly searing among the 20.6 million+ young people on whom the future depends.

Disillusionment leads to civic disengagement. When (young) people are deeply disappointed, feel overlooked, lose faith in a system, and believe their voice, their vote, makes no difference, they feel disempowered and disconnected.

There is a parallel drop in youth news consumption – largely because the traditional news media industry parallels the general disregard of their interests. There is, in short, a dearth of credible news media catering to those between 16 and 35 years of age. It’s no wonder younger audiences are increasingly turning to social media to help make sense of the world. The consequences, however, include misinformation, disinformation, echo chambers, and populism.

Another key factor contributing to low voter turnout among young people is low political literacy. There is no formal civic education in schools and young South Africans aren’t educated to know how government works and how their vote matters.

Solution

Our trustworthy, high-quality and fun videos act as a "signal through the noise” to drive national conversations and civic engagement. We reach young people on the social media platforms they frequent.

Our news explainer videos and sketches are broadcast across all social media platforms. It is published in partnership with other civic minded media companies, and shared in collaboration with civil society organisations to reach youth in ways that gets through, inspires hope, and spurs engagement.

Here is some of our 2024 material:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLXkAN6rN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaNL955S3F4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIlLxMMyn\_M

Plans for 2025

We plan to continue making videos that speak to civic engagement, climate change and the environment, human rights, governance and corporate accountability in 2025.

While our video topics are always hooked to current events in order to maximise the engagement and reach of the content, we always search for opportunities to link civic education issues into everyday news conversations.

As before, these will be broadcast to our audience of over 40 000 on all our established channels as well as through partner networks.