Johannesburg – Known for his famous line “Qim, Shelele” when he brings his shows to an end, Robert “Madluphuthu” Marawa, as his fans call him, has survived Covid-19 and escaped death after experiencing a heart attack while at the gym in 2019.
The famous broadcaster has been fired twice by his employers, the SABC and Supersport via an SMS.
Marawa has shared a series of these events from his former employees on a Twitter thread as many of his fans were not happy with him being sacked and were not even given an opportunity to say his last goodbyes on-air to his fans.
He has recently opened up about what really happened at both SuperSport and the SABC, saying he knows that there is a third force at play.
“You’ve got to trace the consistency of how these things happen. It wont be fired “fired”, they always wait for the contract to come to an end so its a safe way of getting out of what really is. So it’s a contract that is supposed to be renewed, but it’s not renewed and I am not saying this in an arrogant way, but I’m saying it because, when I was told that they are not going to renew the contract in May 2019 I was scheduled to do my Thursday night show for SuperSport and before the show, I received an SMS saying I should not bother coming to do the show,” he said on MacG’s Podcast and Chill last week.
So after serving the Public Broadcaster through time, I am sent yet another text from a person in an "acting" position informing me of this.👇🏾👇🏾
Same modus operandi as SS.What do they fear about the last Show??
Thank you Mzansi for the love & support thru the years. #MSW 🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/WIoqZpbFX0
— robertmarawa (@robertmarawa) July 30, 2021
Marawa said he believes there is someone behind him being fired and it is not someone from SuperSport or the SABC but it is someone from outside.
He also revealed that his simulcast show ranked the highest on both Radio 2000 and Metro FM and brought in advertisement, so it cannot be his performance that got him fired as was said that his show was “devaluing”.
“People must be careful of the body count that’s coming out of the SABC. It’s pressure and it’s not getting that which you deserve,” he said.
Marawa who was himself diagnosed with a heart attack counted a number of people who died due to a similar case as his, the likes of Vuyo Mbuli, Eddie Zondi and David Kekana.
“After the interview with JJ, I received an SMS from Savita Mbuli (Vuyo Mbuli’s wife) and she said she knows what I was talking about, what happened to Eddie is exactly what happened to her husband, when he passed on he had no contract with the SABC, his contract was not renewed but when he died they claimed him as if they liked him,” he said reading the SMS.
“What I am saying is not a Robert thing, it’s just that maybe some people do not want to say it. No broadcaster in the world disrespects its broadcasters more than the SABC and Vuyo Mbuli did not deserve that disrespect, again why was mam Noxolo Grootbom taken off-air when she was just 53 years old in 2013? But when mam Winnie Madikizela-Mandela passed away they brought her back to do funerals and all sorts of things, they see the value of her when it’s funerals but not doing the news,” he added.
Marawa said he is not emotional about the issue but rather factual and he does not see himself going back to the SABC or SuperSport, if they really liked him and appreciated the value he added to the institution they wouldn’t have fired him.
“They don’t want me, if they wanted me they wouldn’t have fired me. I was never gotten rid off because I didn’t have the quality, the numbers were down or came to work high and drunk,” he concluded.
Watch Marawa speaking during the podcast below:
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