adminI’m a fan of Marawa and I watch his television football shows and I’m a regular viewer of the Thursday Night Live programme, which is a show of a kind, complete with a live band performance in the studio.
He has come a very long way, from his debut on SABC 17 years ago, to this iconic television presenter who was trusted by Fifa to host the live draw for the 2010 World Cup finals when it was held in Cape Town.
The boy from KwaZulu-Natal, who studied law at Wits, has been so devoted to his profession he hasn’t even found time to settle down and get married and, two days ago, his Thursday Night Live show clocked 100 episodes.
Mark Williams, scorer of one of the goals in the final as Bafana Bafana won the Nations Cup on home soil in ’96, was there at the party and was one of the people given the floor to sing praises about a sports broadcaster who has really taken his profession to another level.
The award-winning DJ Cleo, who is a self-confessed addict of the show, was also part of the crowd and also spoke glowingly about the programme, its main man, and a new album that will be released in a month’s time.
As I watched South Africa take a bow, and join Marawa in this milestone episode of his popular programme, I was charmed by the way the Rainbow Nation creates and, crucially, honours its sporting icons.
My thoughts raced back home and I thought about a sports broadcasting icon that we also have, the immortal Charles Mabika, and all that he has done for football, from his days as a raw high-pitched voice commentator on radio to his days as a refined and authoritative presenter on national television.
Marawa was still in primary school in apartheid South Africa where blacks and whites used separate toilets and restaurants, when Mabika and the late Evans Mambara were giving domestic football a powerful voice, with their live radio commentaries, during a golden period for the game in the ‘80s.
Today Mabika is closer to marking 30 years, in an industry he has served with distinction, transforming himself from that raw and noisy, but certainly irresistible radio commentator, who charmed our hearts in the ‘80s into this mature and authoritative television anchor who has this incredible depth of knowledge about the local game.
Incredibly, while everything about him has changed, his distinct Afro hairstyle, a throwback to the fashion of the ‘80s when he started his journey in this profession, hasn’t and Doctor Zobha has thrown quite a few jabs on Mabika about that.
Of course, Mabika doesn’t have a platform like SuperSport, to turn him into an international brand like Marawa, but the Marawa party on Thursday night was distinctly South African, by the people of the Rainbow Nation for an icon, in terms of sports journalism, of their country.
Questions started flooding in my little mind.
Why is it that we don’t honour our sporting heroes, someone like Charles Mabika, and celebrate his life and work the way that the South Africans will stop and, for more than an hour, dedicate a prime time television show to the life and works of Robert Marawa?
Why are we so naive that we pretend as if we don’t have heroes, who have done something special that deserve to be honoured, someone like Charles Mabika for his incredible work in sports broadcasting, and we just go on, year after year, as we don’t see what he has done, its beauty and its impact?
Why are we so childish that we pretend as if Charles Mabika has been ordinary, just another kid from Mbare who had a loud voice he could twist it into a melodious narration of a football match on national radio, something that could have been done by every Jack and Jill, something so basic it’s not worth recognising?
Why are we so petty that we pretend as if Evans Mambara never existed, made no meaningful contribution to our game through his powerful voice to such an extent that no one mentions his name now, as if it belongs to a past that should be forgotten and never revisited, when the brutal reality is that he was iconic and, through his voice, he developed our national game?
Would our top recording artists, like Sulu, spare a day like Saturday night, when he is supposed to have a regular show, to be at a function just to honour Charles Mabika, for his contribution to Zimbabwean football, the way DJ Cleo did on Thursday night and graced the party hosted for Robert Marawa?
Do we have the kind of solidarity across the board in our arts industry, which will make a guy like Sulu appreciate what a guy like Mabika has done, and consider it an honour when he graces the occasion to celebrate the life and work of the broadcaster?
While the South Africans feel it’s an honour that Marawa was chosen as the host of the 2010 Fifa World Cup draw television broadcast show, we feel so jealousy that Mabika is hosting a weekly magazine show on ZTV, for the Mbada Diamonds Cup, that when the 2013 Cosafa Cup function came to town, we ignored him and excluded him from the people hosting the event.
We are blinded by petty jealousy, zvanzi Mabika anyanya kuita mari, we keep him out of such a big football event, when clearly he is the best of the lot that can host such a programme, while the South Africans consider it an honour that Marawa is doing the real stuff, where the real money is made, hosting a Fifa World Cup draw.
We are so fascinated with telling ourselves, Marawa akapenga, Thomas Mlambo akaipa, Thomas Kwenaite akadziya, but somehow we can’t extend the same appreciation to our own Charles Mabika who, in my little book, is just as good as these guys and, given the same international platform, can really excel.
Because we are so naive, Charles Mabika will sink 30 or 40 or 50 years into his broadcasting profession and, at the end of it all, will be treated as just another ordinary guy, not worth being hailed for his greatness, while South Africa can take a bow to toast just 100 episodes of the Thursday Night Live With Robert Marawa.
For goodness sake, do we still remember that Charles Mabika used to run a popular weekly television magazine programme called This Is Football and I will bet my last dollar that it went on for more than 100 episodes, if not more than 200 or 300 or even 500, but at no point did we ever stand and take notice that someone was doing something special.
Now that the same programme has disappeared from the ZTV screens, we have all moved on, forgotten about it and its main character as if they never existed, while countries who care so much about their sporting heroes and attach a big value into the wellbeing of their football , like South Africa, are celebrating 100 episodes of Thursday Night Live, and counting.
Are we really a football nation?
How many times, in the newspapers, have you read this cliché that Zimbabwe is a football-crazy nation?
You have probably read about it even in this newspaper and you are likely to read more about it soon, when the Warriors go back into battle, and the media begins to rally the fans to come and support the boys in their World Cup showdown against Egypt.
But are we really a football-crazy nation?
We have fans who have a passion for this game, no doubt about that, we have sponsors who are trying their best, in difficult circumstances, to provide the funding to oil the game and we have a print media that tries its level best to make heroes out of the players who grace our fields, no matter their obvious limitations.
But can we really call ourselves a serious football nation when we don’t have even one football programme on our national television, for just once every week, where journalists, coaches, players and invited guests can talk about this game and, with the help of the powerful moving images that come with television, give it a meaning?
Can we really call ourselves a serious football nation when the game is only restricted to just a minute or so, on the main news bulletin on national television every night, and the poor folks, who are the majority and cannot subscribe to see SuperSport, can’t even see the highlights of the goals that are being scored on the domestic Premiership?
Does it cost a fortune to run a regular football programme, or regular football programmes, on national television that will help the people of this nation understand where their national game is right now?
For all the power of SuperSport, it’s known that the majority of the viewers in South Africa are with SABC, which is the national broadcaster, and while SABC have the weekly Soccer Zone, which groomed Marawa, and a host of other football programmes, we have none on our national television.
I will try and put the power of national television into context.
The opening match of the 2010 World Cup between hosts South Africa and Mexico drew a record South African TV audience of 10 146 793 viewers and SABC 1, the national television, had 8 895 965 viewers that night and SuperSport 3 had 1 250 828 viewers.
That means there were seven times the number of people, who were watching the game live on SABC 1 in South Africa, than those who were watching it on SuperSport 3, and that alone shows the power of national television.
We need our people in the rural areas, those who can’t afford to pay a DSTV subscription, to be able to see the live screening of the Harare Derby on national television and, if that is not possible, then the highlights and panel discussion, in the following weeks, about the key moments and the incidents.
We are probably the only nation in the world where a big game, like the Harare Derby can attract 25 000 people, and is decided by a penalty but there is no expert analysis, on national television, of that defining moment, the move being frozen, did the defender make contact, did the striker fake the foul, was the referee spot on?
In other countries, who have a real passion for football and sport, they would have spent the whole week using the medium of prime time on national television discussing that one big moment, freezing the occasion, bringing in the experts like retired referees, bringing in the journalists and, at the end of it all, you have a clear picture.
That is what Robert Marawa is doing for SuperSport and this is what Thomas Mlambo is doing for SABC1.
That is what Charles Mabika was supposed to be doing for ZBC, with Wilfred Mukuna or any of the retired referees, and they freeze the moment, they cut it to pieces, bit by bit, moment by moment, and at the end of it all they help the game, they help the referees and they help the players and the fans.
Until we take our game onto national television, until it becomes a big part of the menu of national television not a bit-part that is only remembered when it’s time for the main news time and it’s something that is mentioned, in just a minute and quickly fades away you will miss it if you happen to have a toilet date at that moment, we cannot claim to be a football-crazy nation.
A lifelong obsession with negativity
One of the things that the South Africans have done well, which we have done badly, is their obsession with their heroes while, on this side of the Limpopo, we inherit certain genes that keep us chained to the demons that give us a lifelong obsession with negativity.
What brings us fulfilment is devoting hours on Facebook saying Denver Mukamba is a huge flop, simply because coach Clive Baker, who has been overtaken by the changes that the game has undergone since he won the Nations Cup in ’96 with Bafana Bafana, chose not to play him for Wits University this season.
Because of that we get the evidence to support our crazy beliefs that the domestic Premiership is nothing but any empty shell, when it’s all that we have, and its star player in the past year, Denver, cannot even make a regular appearance, on the substitutes’ bench, for modest Bidvest Wits.
So poor Denver is lampooned, at every turn, as a poor creation of both Vietnam, which idolised him, and The Herald, which carried the complimentary articles of him and hailed him as a footballer who was going places.
But the fact that Washington Arubi, in his first season in Super Diski, wins his club’s Player of the Year award and they finish in the Top Eight, in their debut campaign in the top-flight league, and in their last game they beat champions Kaizer Chiefs, is conveniently forgotten.
That Arubi is from the same domestic Premiership, which they now dismiss as a shell using Denver as an example, is conveniently ignored and that the ‘keeper was also being hailed by the same Vietnam is conveniently forgotten and that his brilliance was also acknowledged by The Herald is quietly ignored.
That the team which won the South African Premiership, Kaizer Chiefs, is the only one whose foreign crew has five Zimbabwean players, is conveniently forgotten and that Cuthbert Malajila, whose stock has exploded that he has now moved to Mamelodi Sundowns, is also a product of the same league, is quickly forgotten.
That Archford Gutu didn’t even need the stepping stone of Super Diski as he leapt straight from the domestic Premiership, where he was also a golden boy of Vietnam and where his talent was acknowledged by The Herald, into European football, is conveniently ignored.
Yes, Denver has to justify himself and make the grade, but to suddenly take him as the representative of a failed league or the face of a Dynamos whose players’ profile is lifted by Vietnam and boosted by The Herald, is grossly unfair.
After all, he is young, and he will only get better and can look forward to the arrival of a new coach, Gavin Hunt, next season and it’s easy to forget, isn’t it, that Kingston Nkhatha, who played a key role for Chiefs this season, didn’t start at the very top when he went to South Africa.
At the beginning of last year, he was club-hunting and CAPS United even made a move for him before he went to Black Leopards, which is as modest as a team can ever get in Super Diski, and then started working his way back to the top and now he is a champion.
If Kingston could do it, at such a ripe age, why are we seemingly being so pessimistic on Denver Mukamba, as if the curtains have been drawn on his future in Super Diski, and he won’t have a place in that Premiership anymore?
But that’s exactly what we are as a people, what we are as a nation, what we are as a football community, and in our small world, there are no heroes but an endless list of failures and villains and we feel hurt that five Zimbabweans helped Chiefs win the championship because the story we love to read is that Chiefs have off-loaded their five Zimbabwean players.
We are hurt that Malajila’s star is rising and he has now been bought by Sundowns because what we want to hear is that he has failed, even at a club like Maritzburg United, because it’s that negativity that fascinates us.
Even on the national front, the stories we want to read are the ugly ones, Zifa failed this and Zifa failed this, Gwindi failed this and Gwindi failed that, and when a positive story that the Zifa Village is up and running is written, we don’t want to see it.
Oh, yes, we had a very good story this week, didn’t we, Black Leopards decided against giving Mhofu a contract extension, or as we love to say it, which brings in all the satisfaction, Lidoda Duvha fired Sunday Chidzambwa.
Just as well Mhofu is not Gishon Ntini otherwise this would have been classic stuff, in terms of quotes: “I found them in Division One and left them there.”
Hundred and counting,
well done Marawa
Robert Marawa has, now and again, been asked a question that I face every day of my life – Which local Premiership team do you support?
I have none, really, and I keep saying that I fell in love with Blackpool in the ‘90s and when they collapsed I lost my love for local clubs.
Marawa also says he has no favourite club in Super Diski and, reading his answer, I felt like he was also speaking on my behalf:
“Maybe, it’s because I know too much about the clubs, it’s taken the fun away from that,” said Marawa.
“The minute I got involved in what I do, I got to know more than what a spectator, who blindly goes to the game to watch 11 guys against 11, so I don’t support for those reasons. I don’t support any team in the PSL.”
When he was asked why Chiefs were relying mostly on Zimbabwean players, and whether it was a question of just getting cheap imports, Marawa said: “Either Chiefs have bigger business interests in Zim or their management rates their talent above that of any other country.”
After Amakhosi won the championship this season, maybe their management was right to rate the talents of Zimbabwean players, in Robert Marawa’s own words, “above that of any other country.”
Surprisingly, while the Chiefs leaders can see it and people like Robert Marawa are prepared to give them the benefit of doubt, we don’t see it because, in our small world, nothing great can come out of our country and a player like Denver Mukamba is a creation of Vietnam and The Herald.
That’s why Robert Marawa is known around the world, and hailed as a brilliant sports broadcaster, and we can’t even honour our own Charles Mabika.
Gqimmmmmmmmmm Shelele
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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