adminJOHANNESBURG. – 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.
The Meeting With Jomo Sono
“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.” – FARPost
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter