Six series of Siyayinqoba Beat It! broadcast
In 1998 a group of activists believed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic was reaching a crucial stage as the epidemic began to move from a stage of high rates of infection to high rates of illness and death. As the epidemic became more visible, the idea was born of taking simplified scientific information on all aspects of HIV/AIDS to a broad audience through television. Thus, Siyayinqoba Beat It! and CHMT were born.
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Beat It! 1999
In 1999 Beat It! went on air for the first time on eTV – an independent broadcaster in South Africa. At the time not many people were open about their HIV status. The first programme was dedicated to promoting and role modeling people living positively with HIV. The episodes were comprised of various sections. A special report section covered topics as diverse as government's intention to make HIV notifiable and the accuracy of HIV testing. A human rights section addressed the discrimination against HIV positive people at the hands of medical aid schemes, the South African National Defence Force and even the healthcare sector.
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Beat It! 2000
Still broadcast by South Africa's independent broadcaster eTV, this series of Beat It!, although still comprised of various sections, introduced an additional section. In this new section we were introduced to the HIV positive members of an HIV/AIDS support group. Each week this allowed viewers infected and affected by HIV to be privy to a discussion of the various dimensions of living with HIV from sex and the positive person to opportunistic infections. In this series we also got to meet some comrades and commemorate the lives of others who were and had actively been campaigning for the rights of people living with HIV. Hamba kahle fallen comrades.
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Beat It! 2002
In July 2002 the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the Treatment Action Campaign ordering government to roll-out a prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) programme. Beat It! consequently set out to show how PMTCT programmes could be implemented both in rural and urban areas and how nurses were key in making these programmes work. In the same year government also announced that it would be making post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) available to rape survivors. Beat It! consequently increased treatment literacy sections that addressed both PMTCT and PEP, making scientific information accessible to viewers.
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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2004
In 2004, antiretroviral treatment became available in South Africa through the public health system and the doors of the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, our national broadcaster, were opened to CHMT. We produced a 26 part series in co-production with SABC. We highlighted stories such as that of HIV positive high school learner Linda Pindani, who was intent on entering into manhood through a traditional Xhosa circumcision ceremony. Pindani at this stage had however also progressed to stage four of the disease, and his compromised immune system meant that he had to make tough decisions around this rite of passage.
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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2005
In 2005, CHMT produced another series in co-production with SABC Education, the issues that we highlighted in this series were stories such as: "How to disclose your HIV status" in which a young girl from a poor area in the Western Cape actually disclosed her status ON CAMERA for the first time to her aunt. In 2005, CHMT was personally affected by the loss of a fellow activist, professor Ronald Louw to AIDS – his story highlighted another aspect of the epidemic in South Africa – that of middle class denialism. The episode on Prisons and HIV, shot in Westville Prison, also became a catalyst that prompted the inmates to start demanding treatment.
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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2006
In the third series produced with SABC Education we featured stories on “Youth and parents talking about sex” where we spoke to young people and their parents about where they get information about sex and HIV. Every season on Siyayinqoba Beat It! we feature certain key HIV-related topics, including gender based violence. In 2006, we put together two episodes on gender violence, one featuring a young girl, raped repeatedly by her father who successfully prosecuted him and the other featuring the rape and murder of Lorna Mlofana whose killers were eventually brought to justice through community mobilisation and activism.
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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2008
In anticipation of our 2009 series of Siyayinqoba Beat It! we are getting ready to move the 2008 series into the archive. Until then you can find the 2008 series at www.beatit.co.za/episodes/episode-1.
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