Siyayinqoba Beat It! is a South African magazine show produced by the Community Health Media Trust which discusses hard-hitting topics about people living with HIV and stresses the importance of living positively in a world with AIDS.
The series premiered on e.tv on Tuesday 19 October, 1999 and aired on the channel for the first three seasons. Since Season 4 it has been produced in cooperation with SABC Education and has aired on SABC1.
Season 9 premiered on SABC1 on Thursday 4 April 2013, at 13h30. New episodes broadcast weekly. There are 26 episodes in the ninth season.
Synopsis
Complicated relationships. Sex. Domestic violence. An indiscriminate killer. Unfortunately, for many South Africans this isn't the stuff of daytime soap operas, it's a reality.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! tackles HIV/AIDS pandemic issues head on. With the support of SABC1 and SABC Education, Siyayinqoba Beat It! faces hard-hitting topics about people living with HIV.
Proudly presented by people living with HIV, Siyayinqoba Beat It! stresses the importance of living positively in a world with AIDS. The show takes us into the lives of people who are meeting the challenges of this disease – one of the biggest challenges facing South Africa today.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! pulls no punches in its quest for the truth about AIDS-related issues. With its investigative style, the show seeks to not only to expose the crisis created by AIDS but to show how people are able to live a normal life with the disease and ultimately beat it.
By employing Community Journalists with a unique affinity to their neighbourhoods, Siyayinqoba Beat It! is able to candidly reveal real life stories without judgment.
This season the key message of the show is Protect Yourself. Protect Others. This message can be applied to all themes touched on in the show.
For example, reducing one's number of sexual partners protects you and your partner; preventing HIV transmission from mother to child, protect the child and the mother; being screened for TB protects your health and that of those around you and of course using condoms protects you and your partners.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! is premised on the principle that treatment and prevention are interdependent. Key messages that are highlighted on the show include regular testing and starting ARV treatment at the right time; reporting sexual abuse and rape (a major contributor to the spread of HIV), alcohol abuse and its relation to risky sexual practices; partner reduction – more partners means more risk, less partners means less risk and encouraging safer sex always.
Other episodes deal with topics such as: women, sexual abuse and domestic violence; having multiple partners – the so-called “ministers”. This is a slang term given typically to older men who provide food, clothing, transport (i.e. Minister of Transport) or gifts to younger girls in return for sex.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! does not judge those involved in such relationships. Rather the show makes us aware of the risks of being involved in a relationship with many sexual partners.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! encourages us to take control of our lives, seek alternatives and always insist on safer sex.
These themes are also tackled in public service announcements which will be flighted during the show. These PSAs were conceived, written and directed by some of South Africa's up and coming film makers who keep Siyayinqoba in tune with South Africa's youth and speaks to them on their own terms.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! targets all people living with HIV/ AIDS, our partners, families, friends, colleagues and caregivers. It is aimed at the community as a whole - and is therefore a family program.
Background
In 1998, a group of HIV/AIDS activists believed that the epidemic was reaching a crucial stage as it moved from a phase of high rates of infection, to high rates of illness and death.
As the epidemic became more visible, the idea of taking easily understood scientific information on all aspects of HIV/AIDS to a broad audience through television was born.
In 1999, Siyayinqoba Beat It! went on air for the first time. At that time not many people were open about their HIV/AIDS status.
The first programme was dedicated to promoting and role modeling people living positively with HIV. From the outset, the programme was driven by the real concerns of people living with HIV/AIDS who also presented and helped craft the shows.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! targets all people living with HIV and AIDS: our partners, families, friends, colleagues and caregivers.
Siyayinqoba Beat It! inserts typically address all HIV positive people: from HIV positive moms, youth, to HIV positive men who have discovered safer sex through conquering their fear of the disease through treatment.
In the same breath, it addresses all who care for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The programme appeals to anyone who has been directly affected by HIV; and in today's South Africa, almost everyone has had some first hand experience of HIV, and many feel the need to be proactive in responding to the epidemic.