Nothing for Mahala: Film and Campaign

The film and campaign was inspired by the fact that people are increasingly spending more than they earn, leading to a debt crisis. Many want to get rich quickly, leading to a rise in corruption. Nothing for Mahala is intended to challenge people to take a comical and critical look at their own relationships with money and people. The story features Axe Gumede (Thapelo Mokoena). An up-and-coming property agent, who is desperate to make his mark in life and believes you have to spend money in order to make it. The only problem is that Axe is spending a lot more than he is making, driving the flashy car and trying to live up to the Motsepes and the Joneses. This extravagant lifestyle gets him into trouble with loan sharks and, through a series of mishaps, in trouble with the law. His fast-paced career is rudely interrupted when he gets sentenced to 200 hours of community service at an old-age home. There he meets and gets assigned to Hendrik, a grumpy old man who spent his life chasing money and now finds himself miserable and alone. Their story is a comic clash of cultures spiced up with hard-hitting life lessons.

To promote the campaign before the film release, HEARTLINES hosted a number of road shows around the country, as well as pre-screenings of the film in selected regions.

The film is intended to first start conversations in an informal way. The campaign is producing a series of resources to take the conversation to a deeper level in a small-group context. These resources include the following:

• Church small-group resource: a 48-page full colour resource and a 6-week Bible study on values and money that is suitable for small groups. The themes of these include honesty in earning; responsibility in spending; wisdom in borrowing; self-control in saving, and generosity in giving.
• Interfaith and workplace small-group resource: a 48-page full colour resource and a 6-week course on values and money that is suitable for interfaith small groups, workplace, family or stokvel discussion groups. The themes that are addressed are the same as the church small group resource, which will also be available in English.
  
  
• Youth resource: This resource includes a DVD and booklet suitable for youth aged 15-25 and those who work with youth. It includes digital and mobile conversations on values and money and the themes focus on how to save and spend, and entrepreneurship and business tips.

Along with encouraging awareness, the campaign will highlight organisations offering practical skills on money management. They hope to see individuals, families and society transformed about social issues such as materialism, indebtedness, crime, corruption, over spending, and job creation.

HEARTLINES is a non-governmental organisation that uses media to start conversations and transform lives. The organisation's approach is to address behaviour change from a values perspective. "Whereas other initiatives tend to tackle behaviour change from a health, legal and human rights perspective, HEARTLINES challenges people irrespective of race, gender, age or religion to live out positive values in a way that will build people, families, communities and the nation."