You Snooze, You Lose

Walala Wasala is a ground-breaking programme, targeting South Africa´s youth. The title is a colloquialism for 'You snooze, you lose.' It was a programme for the youth, about the youth and most importantly, by the youth. Walala Wasala aimed to answer South Africans´ questions about who the youth were - what they did, where they chill, what they talk about, how they saw their role in a society in flux, and how that made them feel about voting. Presenter Isaac Chokwe described the programme as a 'check up from the neck up,' meaning that we gave the youth the opportunity to speak their minds. We looked at the world from the point of view of the youth - for a change, nobody was talking on their behalf. Covering a range of topics which affect youth in their daily lives, like unemployment, AIDS, government, etc., the programme used the unconvinced voter, Isaac, as the mechanism to find out why he and his peers should care about voting in the election at all. His journey took the viewers into the minds, homes and hang outs of young people in pursuit of those elusive reasons for being part of the political process which aimed to transform our country from one based on racial discrimination to a full-fledged democracy.