Niggies is a powerful Afrikaans true-crime drama rooted in a real double murder that took place in 1966. To honour the story’s emotional weight and cultural significance, kykNET launched the series at the 2025 KKNK festival, the heartland of Afrikaans arts and identity. The result was not just a media launch, but an emotionally immersive event that left audiences shaken, moved, and talking.

Held in a raw, abandoned tobacco warehouse in Oudtshoorn, the activation invited festivalgoers to step into the emotional landscape of Niggies. Through a series of sensory gallery style installations, ranging from recreated crime scenes to intimate domestic spaces and symbolic elements like a washing line with two lonely children’s dresses, the event offered a haunting, immersive journey. Every detail, from the set design to the venue's creaking floorboards, was intentionally designed in to stay true to the family, and the story itself.

The impact of this emotionally charged experience extended far beyond the walls of the venue. The activation triggered a national wave of media, influencer and public attention.

The results were unprecedented: Niggies became the highest-rated kykNET original drama in the channel’s 25-year history and the most-streamed show on DStv Stream at the time of launch. Importantly, it reached beyond Afrikaans-speaking audiences, capturing the attention of South Africans from other language groups who were drawn in by the depth of the show.

This campaign did not water down its language, it leaned into it. Afrikaans was the vessel for truth, for grief, for remembrance. And in doing so, kykNET proved that emotionally resonant, culturally rooted storytelling in Afrikaans is for us all.