/ 12 November 2022

‘Ah, Robert, you work too hard’

Marawamandela
On the ball: Nelson Mandela with sports journalist, radio and television presenter Robert Marawa.

Chapter 19

Madiba leaned on his walking stick, his PA Zelda la Grange alongside him, and carefully made his way towards me. He was wearing a trademark gold Madiba shirt. We were backstage at the President’s Cup golf tournament at Fancourt in George in 2003. Security was swarming and the major cable networks were set up all around us. I had been given the illustrious task of MCing the opening and closing ceremonies of the event. More than 102 million households would be tuning in across Africa, Europe and the US on NBC, Turner Cable and ESPN, amongst other channels. I was nervous!

‘Ah, Robert, you work too hard,’ the former president joked.

My retort was, ‘No, Madiba, you are the one that works hard. Who am I to even come close to it?’ ‘No, no, no, no, no, no. You see, Zelda here keeps telling me that I’ve been resting for 27 years, and now I work!’

Those words became engraved in my mind immediately. How could somebody who has suffered and been punished and sacrificed so much in prison for years even call it ‘rest’?

That was one of the most humbling comments I have heard from a person of that stature. It also motivated me and encouraged me that the journey I was on and the path I was travelling was meant to happen.

I am a football lover who wanted to do football on television and here I am now being asked to host and MC the Presidents’ Cup. That baffled me. It was the kind of tournament that anybody would want to have as a gig and attach their names to.

My father may have been a golf caddy but I didn’t know anything about golf. Living on the farm in Fort Louis, I never saw the purpose of his golf clubs. He also didn’t spend enough time trying to convince me to learn the sport because he was also just busy trying to make ends meet for the family. But he really loved the sport.

I was scared because I didn’t know the terminology or the scoring and I really had no interest in golf. I had to do research and find out what the President’s Cup was all about. It was where the world’s best get to play against the United States of America, and they were going to be here. The world’s elite.

The very best golfers in the world were there, from Tiger Woods to Ernie Els. I could visually identify some of the bigname players. Also, there was former US President George Bush senior. He and President Thabo Mbeki walked in wearing gold blazers.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. These guys were metres away from me. It was real. These were the world’s best golfers. There were the best US golfers. It was a prestigious event, like the World Cup of Golf. It’s a once-off and doesn’t happen often. There were world leaders. I had to introduce them all and officially open the event to the world. I was at the helm of this event.

There was no autocue, just a couple of cue cards, and I had to maintain the dignity and prestige of the event. I had to focus on the job.

It was at times like that that I realised that maybe there is a purpose to what I am doing. The initial calling would take different forms but it was really overwhelming. The entire world was watching and I think that’s what freaked me out more than anything, trying to not stuff up in front of a global audience.

That was just one of the jobs I did for the presidency during my career. When Nelson Mandela was still president of South Africa, the initial request had come in to host an event called the Premier and Presidential Awards held annually in Pretoria and hosted by the sitting president.

I had thought it was a hoax or somebody was pulling a prank on me when the request first came in. I’m a sportscaster. I’m living my dream. I’m an admirer of politicians like Madiba, as we all were at the time if freedom and equality were what you were looking for. In terms of my broadcasting space, I was really just knuckling down and doing what I was doing. So, when a call came through from the Office of the President requesting and asking me for an email address so that they can begin a conversation as to whether or not I was able to host that event, I then had to believe that it was happening and I accepted.

It was a black-tie event full of politicians and people in the entertainment industry. I barely even got an opportunity to meet Madiba because introducing him to the podium and shifting aside doesn’t actually count as meeting the man.

But it became an annual event and I was asked to host it several more times, both under Mandela and then Thabo Mbeki’s presidency. I wasn’t sure what earned me the right to be called up, but I took it as another confirmation that I was doing the right thing and to keep going.

I did eventually meet Madiba at one of the awards ceremonies. It was towards the end of his presidency, so he was more relaxed.

In true Madiba style, during soundcheck and rehearsals he came across and congratulated me on the job that I had done at these events over the years. I was grateful that he even knew my name, but Madiba was meticulous in always wanting to greet people by name. Here was the most revered man in the world showering me with praise. It is something that I really cherished.

Through all those events I formed a relationship with his assistant, Zelda. I was always sure to pass on birthday wishes and, with the events that I had done, the relationship was always cordial.

In my mind I was thinking I couldn’t let go of this opportunity. I wanted to get an interview with Madiba. I knew so many current-affairs shows had failed to get him onto their programmes, whether it was radio or television. Some big hitters in the world weren’t able to get a one-on-one with him.Who am I to expect to get it right? Plus, I was doing a sports show, so that was even more of a problem.

I put the proposition forward to Zelda and it wasn’t rejected straightaway. I was told it could be a possibility. I was very blunt with her and I said I know Madiba is a politician. People want to hear him speak politics. I am not a politician. I do not do current affairs and I don’t do a politics show. But I also knew that Madiba was huge in terms of sport. I knew that Madiba was a former boxer and he loved his boxing. I knew that Madiba was the first person Hansie Cronje phoned when he was caught in the match-fixing saga. I knew that SARFU president Louis Luyt was the first person after Madiba’s release to send Madiba back to court.

I thought, with just those three angles, I could pull it off and get him to agree to come to the show. I bought the book chronicling the court case with Louis Luyt and read that cover to cover to understand the legal issues. I also had to understand what was happening with the cricket case and the match fixing because whatever Hansie had reached out to Mandela for might not have been public knowledge at the time. So, it made sense for me to try and get it firsthand from Madiba. What was it that Hansie was reaching out to him about and why him?

Zelda spoke to Madiba and he agreed, and the interview was set up. They also then decided to grant a few other interview requests on that same day. Gareth Cliff and Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu were then put into the mix with their own interviews. The beautiful thing was that they accepted doing it live, not a pre-record. It was still a new thing for Metro to broadcast from the reception area and it was like a fishbowl with people gathering around to watch you.

Normally, I was talking to millions of people who I didn’t see so it was unnerving with people physically watching. I had to go through protocols. The SABC management all came to be present there, to welcome and meet Madiba. There was a whole spectacle and people gathered all around. They wanted to see this man in the flesh. There was so much buzz that it was more than just a radio show; it became a showstopper in Auckland Park.

Just his arrival was presidential. It was Madiba. They had to bring him in a little bit early because he got distracted by people. He wanted to greet and have a handshake here and there. I got to spend some time with him in the holding room. He was in a good mood. He was wearing a Madiba shirt and I had my own version of one on too.

I didn’t write questions or submit questions to him. I think there was enough trust that was built between us before the interview and I wanted it to be a conversation. I then saw the Mandela I had seen on television. The smile was wiped off. The laughing was gone. I could tell now that there was this shield that had developed within a short space of time. And was that going to work for or against me? Was I going to get a Madiba who is going to give me one-word answers and throw it back to you to try to navigate your way? I just told myself I’m going to be confident. There’s a once- off opportunity for you to interview the one person the world wants to interview.

Was I going to stuff it up? Absolutely not. Why must I do that? Had I done enough prep? Definitely. This man was an intellectual. This was somebody who, beyond anything of being a politician or what they wanted to call a rabble-rouser back then, was actually a humane and very smart person. So, I needed to bring my A game.

The Interview. Wow. It was 29 minutes’ flat go, no ads. I think it got to a stage where he also felt it was the kind of interview that he needed, that wasn’t about trade unions or politics. He opened up and I was not wrong in having judged him as a sports-loving person.

He really cared about sportspeople. He cared about the late Baby Jake Matlala. He cared about former boxers. He cared about the role that he had played in shaping and uniting sports in this country. His memory of the details of the Louis Luyt case was incredible because what that triggered within Mandela was his legal background. Then branching off to the Hansie Cronje side, he had a very soft spot for the former captain. I think he had a soft spot for a lot of people.

Gqimm Shelele: The Robert Marawa Story by Mandy Wiener is published by Pan Macmillan South Africa, R348.00