Vuk'Uzenzele: New TV series for Micro-Businesses

Long before President Thabo Mbeki popularised the term, Vuk'Uzenzele, in his opening address to parliament last year, the idea to 'wake up' and 'do it for yourself' was in the process of being translated into an inspiring multi-media series aimed at developing a spirit of entrepreneurship.

Against a backdrop of rampant unemployment and failing start-ups the urgency of such a programme cannot be over emphasised. Vuk'Uzenzele is a 26 episode television series now showing on SABC 1 at 12.30pm on Sundays, with a repeat on Thursdays at 10am. It takes us to the streets, taxi ranks, backyards, rural villages and markets and everywhere business is happening.

Vuk'Uzenzele seeks to encourage the unemployed and those already in micro business to broaden their horizons and cut through the obstacles that many face like finance and self-esteem. Its target audience is those still studying and thinking about the future, the unemployed and those who have already started a micro business but want to expand it.

As an educational programme it follows a simple and clear approach understandable to the micro-business practitioner who has not had the privilege of a business education. At the same time, the Vuk'Uzenzele format recognises the need to package important educational messages in an entertaining way. Hence, the programme takes the form of mini drama with four vibrant characters.

The main characters, Sizwe and Priya, are talk-show radio DJs who run a radio slot which imparts the necessary skills to start, sustain and manage a successful micro business. In the radio show, there will dynamic interaction between the DJ's, experts, case studies and role models.

Vuk'Uzenzele confronts the two apparently conflicting requirements of developing a spirit of entrepreneurship while recognising the absence of many necessary skills in the population at large. The programme also seeks to highlight issues that impact specifically on rural people as well as disenfranchised women and people with disabilities. The programme will be supported by training videos, radio programmes and booklets, which will be distributed to training centers country-wide.

"The need for a culture of entrepreneurship is clear, in view of unemployment in the formal sector ranging from 20 to 40% of the adult population. Global economic trends increasingly indicate a decrease in formal employment," says Johan Venter, SABC's Education Project Manager.

Vuk'Uzenzele is sponsored by the Eskom Development Foundation and Hollard Insurance. It is produced by Kagiso Educational Television in association with Soul City. Kagiso Educational Television, also produces Enterprise Zone, a magazine programme targeting small businesses. Vuk'Uzenzele has now been turned into SABC's flagship micro-business educational series.