"The M-Net VUKA! Awards embody our company's commitment to the development of the nation through social innovation. Through the VUKA! Awards we are able to support the nurturing of South Africa's human capital, and create collaborative relationships with the industries in which it operates."

For the last ten 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 to date.

Representing M-Net corporate social investment (CSI) project, 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) as the competition genre.

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. The on-going exposure of critical social issues via the M-net and selected DSTV platform has resulted in resources being directed towards needy causes whose messages are broadcast into over one million homes in South Africa, the African continent and Indian Ocean Islands.

In 1999 there were only an estimated 25 PSAs flighted across all of South Africa's national television channels. That year, only122PSAentries were received. Since then, the competition has continued to grow in reputation and in past two years the Awards entries total has topped 200.

The M-Net VUKA! Awards represent a national collaboration between all relevant industry stakeholders, and encompasses tertiary institutions around the country and 600 production companies that commit valuable intellectual and financial resources to assist and mentor young advertising and film talents looking for an opportunity to break into the highly competitive industry.

The success of VUKA! was highlighted by a prestigious Business Arts South Africa Award for long term sustainability in the arts, in 2004.

M-Net also invests actively in a broad range of Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives over and above the Vuka Awards. These are characterised by the creation of win-win relationships with government and communities in order to advance the upliftment of needy communities.

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.