SuperSport denies Marawa's 'involvement in exposing sexual harassment' was behind axing

SuperSport has denied allegations that popular sportscaster Robert Marawa was fired over an alleged attempt to expose sexual harassment at the broadcaster.

Marawa shocked sports fans  when he announced he had been fired from SuperSport via a text message on May 16. 

While he did not initially give reasons for his dismissal, Marawa hinted that it had to do with allegations of sexual harassment within the broadcasting channel that he had spoken up about. 

SuperSport spokesperson Clinton van der Berg refuted the claims. 

“Sexual harassment is, however, completely unrelated to, and played no role whatsoever in, the decision by SuperSport to not pursue a contractual relationship with Robert Marawa,” he said.

On Monday, SowetanLIVE reported that sportscaster Mmaphuti Mashamaite had laid a complaint with SuperSport after she was allegedly sexually harassed by one of her bosses, who she called a “sexual predator”.

According to the report, Mashamaite, a sports presenter for the Multichoice Diski Challenge's Asidlali Games, relocated to Limpopo because she “feared” for her life.

Marawa retweeted tweets that Mashamaite published on Friday.

Van der Berg said he couldn’t confirm whether the channel was investigating any alleged sexual harassment.

“I cannot confirm any sexual harassment claims,” he said, adding that HR "do not publicly divulge such information".