Sportscaster extraordinaire Robert Marawa has lifted the lid on the darker side of the beautiful game, laying bare the shenanigans, tactics and tricks that affected his roller-coaster ride – a career spanning decades.
In his recently published autobiography – Gqimm Shelele: The Robert Marawa Story, the award-winning TV and radio personality emerges as a barman serving bittersweet cocktails comprising highs and lows in a career that had him rub shoulders with statesmen and superstars and concomitantly step on the toes of the powers that be in sports. In his nature of no fear or favour, Marawa details moments that had him soar to greater zeniths and also take a nosedive.
His book, co-authored with Mandy Wiener, has the man from eNkandla revealing the behind-the-scenes details of his hiring and firing at SABC and SuperSport, the three times he came face-to-face with death, his bouts with PSL and Safa officials, the job offer he received from Mamelodi Sundowns boss Patrice Motsepe, his meeting with PSL boss Irvin Khoza, which lasted close to four hours, and his clashes with former Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula, whom he alleges wanted him fired from the SABC.
The feisty and fearless Marawa pulls no punches, in his book, where he names and shames individuals who were hell-bent on silencing him on the airwaves. He calls SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe ‘a coward’ for ghosting him when it was time for contract renewal negotiations. Though Marawa keeps an audible silence about his fracas with former Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane, his book is vocal about a number of encounters that make it an interesting page-turner.
FARPost’s Hosea Ramphekwa lists Fifteen (15) Quotable Quotes from Marawa’s book:
MARAWA INTERVIEW WITH NELSON MANDELA
Being able to have a one-on-one with Mandela and understand his vision and what he wanted from it then gave me more of an impetus to say, ‘Let me fight for this transformation.’ If there was one thing that Madiba interview helped to shape in me, it was to have enough resolve to continue a fight to where ministers of sport after Ngconde Balfour just became ceremonial people. They had to cut ribbons and make a noise on television.
WHEN PATRICE MOTSEPE OFFERED MARAWA A JOB AT SUNDOWNS
Part of me did begin to wonder if this wasn’t the start of attempts to get me out of the industry and if it wasn’t the early stages of moves to push me off radio and television platforms. I turned down the offer. I had heard unsubstantiated rumours that there were plans to offer me lots of money to do other work that was not broadcasting-related to get me off air. When I look at this kind of offer, it fitted right in with that suggestion.
THE MEETING WITH IRVIN KHOZA OVER SUSPICIONS OF HIS FIRING
It was a brutally frank conversation. Instead of it lasting an hour and a half, we ended up speaking for nearly four hours. He had got the message across to me that at no point should I doubt him as a person and as a human being. Over the years, we would exchange very courteous messages with one another, and he was always complimentary of my work. Subsequent to that meeting, I did get fired from SuperSport and from the SABC. The suspicion lingers, but he had stated his case. In my heart, I believed that my repeated firings were motivated by pressure exerted by administrators of multiple sporting codes.
ON FIKILE MBALULA WANTING HIM FIRED
The SABC would say I was being too harsh on the Minister because they were very beholden to people in government. That’s why Mbalula requested that I be fired. He denies it now, but I also received a legal letter from him. But what are you hiding? Why aren’t you, as a government official, doing the right thing? World previous sports ministers like Steve Tshwete or Ngconde Balfour have accepted something like this. That is when I realised that all these comrades who found themselves in positions are not entirely capable of holding those titles because they know nothing about sports.
CAUGHT BETWEEN SABC AND SUPERSPORT OVER PSL TV RIGHTS
Midstream through the conversation with Imtiaz (then SuperSport CEO), Beverly (Marawa’s Producer) started waving her hands around, telling me to cut the interview. Cut, Cut. She tells me Dali (then SABC CEO) wants us to cut the interview. I was not going to cut the interview. I refused. But then I said on air, because I believed the listeners should know, that there had been pressure off air to end the interview. I had to let the audience know, in the event that I got fired after that, what the reason was. Lo and behold, it didn’t take long before I got a message telling me I was suspended.
WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA OFFERING WORDS OF COMFORT
She said to me my son, what are they doing to you? Is everything okay? Obviously, she had heard what had happened and wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help. I told her that I did what I was supposed to do and explained what had happened. She was so kind and sweet and full of praise and concern.
STORMS AT SUPERSPORT
I had heard stories about what was happening at outside broadcasts or even in the studio with women being put in positions that amounted to sexual harassment scenarios, such as being forced into spending time with a director in exchange for regular appearances on the schedule or being given more shifts. If you were an on-air personality and you wanted more regular shifts, then you had to have a physical relationship with a director.
ON GETTING SACKED AT SUPERSPORT
I think there were several reasons why I was sacked by SuperSport. I think a lot of them had to do with what had happened already. It was not just my utterances about local football. I had also been outspoken about transformation in rugby and cricket too. Remember, SuperSport had agreements with other sporting code bodies too.
GHOSTED BY SABC CEO AFTER HIS SECOND COMING
I was deliberately reaching out to him because I could sense that the Madoda that had approached me at Melrose Arch Hotel for me to come back was no longer the same Madoda that was now being evasive, not taking my calls, not returning messages, not following up on meetings. Why couldn’t he do the same towards the end and have the courage to tell me that I had ruffled feathers or that someone in power was angry? I would have had more respect for him. He is a coward. He owes me nothing. I needed nothing from him. I just needed him to be straight up, to be honest enough, to be forthright, to reach a conclusion that made sense to me. Was it a radio decision? Was the number of listeners falling?
MYSTERIOUS FORCES OF DARKNESS AT SABC
I am convinced I was under attack. By who or what, I don’t know. Who sends supernatural forces? How do you trace them back? How do you know what the motive is? There was a lot of speculation about certain people within the SABC. People would always say I should try not to get into the building too early. There was speculation that people were jealous or envious or just downright didn’t want to see me succeed.
SUFFERING HEART ATTACK
There I was lying in the back of the ambulance, dying, in pain, and the hunt for this medical aid card was going on. At the hospital there was suddenly a level of urgency. I had lost valuable time with the ambulance delay. The nurses hooked me up to the monitors and I could tell from the doctor’s reaction that something bad had been detected. He looked at me and told me that I was having a heart attack right at that moment.
THE STANDARD OF LOCAL FOOTBALL
Now players play more like robots, where they are told to get the ball quickly and release. There’s no expression of their talent. Only a guy like Ted Dumitru was able to incorporate his knowledge of African football, and more specifically South African football, to make it work during his tenure at Kaizer Chiefs.
ON FOOTBALL LEADERSHIP
I will never write off South African football because I think the fact that we have failed to manage it or to direct it properly doesn’t mean that football has failed. It just means that we need fresher minds to lead the charge forward. It’s always about leadership. Leadership of football should also be flexible enough to allow younger, fresher minds to guide the older people who have taken this journey so far.
ROB THE BUCCANEER
Ironically, I have also been an Orlando Pirates supporter. It’s one of the things I’ve never really spoken about in my whole career as I never wanted to be seen as biased. People are very finicky about these things. I have always insisted publicly that I don’t support a local team, only Bafana Bafana.
EX-FIANCE – PEARL THUSI
Amusingly, my mother, to whom Pearl introduced her hair range, often asks me to replenish her products when they run out period picture me in Clicks carrying Pearl’s hair products with her face plastered all over them and the cashiers probably wondering whether it’s the products I miss or Pearl I can’t let go of while ringing up my purchase.
