On the 4th of February 2015, I auditioned on Idols SA in Pretoria. The auditions were televised on the 9th of August 2015. There was however a part of the audition that South Africans didn't see.
One of the things I did while on stage was to ask for an opportunity to say something about HIV/AIDS. Unathi responded and said "Look straight to the camera and speak from your heart"
I literally went down on my knees and part of what I said was "This red jacket I am wearing, symbolize the blood of more than 200 South Africans who die of AIDS related conditions everyday, more than 700 South Africans get infected with HIV everyday and more than 3million South Africans who have died of AIDS. It can't be businesses as usual, South Africans we must come together and fight against HIV/AIDS. It can be defeated, united we defeated the apartheid government, we can't be defeated by HIV/AIDS"
I saw tears in Unathi's eyes and there was just an unintended moment of silence, from both the judges and producers in the room. I felt tears in my eyes but I was able to hold it.
Unfortunately the nation never had an opportunity of seeing such. Others usually argue and say, IDOLS isn't a platform for advertising our campaigns and or business, it is purely for entertainment and there is no room for campaigns. It's however important to note that just last year, Idols took a very good decision of giving an opportunity to a gentleman selling eggs to share his business in their platform. There are also many other occasions when people were given an opportunity to go beyond entertainment and touch life concerning issues.
Even though the part where I made a 1 minutes speech was never shown, there is a part towards the end where Somizi says "I liked his speech, he should represent our country". He was referring to the speech I made about HIV.
Why did I choose the Idols platform? I was doing my 1st year Master of Public Health program and it was just after I completed my Post Grad Diploma in Public Health. The issue of HIV/Aids kept on coming again and again, I told myself that we had to do something and I in particular had to do something about this. One day I saw advert about auditions and I said to myself I shouldn't miss that opportunity. Knowing that Idols is mostly watched by young South Africans, I thought Idols would be a greatest platform to spread the message.
Even though I was initially irritated by the decision of the producers not to show the part that I thought would have changed lives of many South Africans, I made peace with it. I couldn't change it, but had an opportunity of gaining a wider audience in talking about HIV/Aids. Today I have 5000 facebook friends and 1200 followers and I am grateful of the support and patience from everyone, I know that HIV topics can be irritating at times but we just have to keep on discussing until we win this battle.
I'm therefore thankful to @IdolsSA for a once in a life time opportunity they gave me.
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