The Netflix documentary on Senzo Meyiwa highlights the pitfalls for young footballers from a tough background being drawn into a celebrity world, says radio presenter and sports anchor Robert Marawa.
Marawa was a contributor to the five-part series Senzo: Murder of a Soccer Star, launched on April 8. The airing coincided with the start of the trial of the five accused of his murder in the Pretoria high court, gripping SA again with the mystery and tragedy of the slaying of beloved Bafana Bafana goalkeeper and Orlando Pirates captain Meyiwa.
The series investigates the events of October 26 2014, when Meyiwa was murdered at girlfriend Kelly Khumalo’s house in Vosloorus, and the aftermath of an eight-year investigation. It also, almost as a crucial side note, gives insight into professional SA footballers’ lifestyles.
Meyiwa is characterised, as so many footballers can be, as having been drawn into the world of celebrity, singer and soap star girlfriends and social circles centred on hedonistic lifestyles that soccer stars do not always fully understand.
Whether that played a part in costing Meyiwa his life remains unanswered. But from the spiralling circumstances that arose from his complicated love life — he was married to Mandisa while dating Khumalo — Meyiwa is portrayed as having got in over his head.
Junior Khanye has written a book about his rise and fall and it’s all the same story. Young men coming into something — the clubs don’t assist any of these players in their lifestyle choices.
— Sports anchor Robert Marawa
Marawa was interviewed by the documentary makers because he had relationships with Meyiwa and Khumalo before they were a couple, and interactions with them in the days before the player’s death.
The radio host has interviewed countless footballers for whom the celebrity lifestyle, especially in Johannesburg, cost them furthering their careers. It is an aspect that is brought to light in the Meyiwa documentary, Marawa says.
“You do get that sense. A little thing I picked up watching it, and I’ve seen it picked up on social media, is where there’s [a picture of] a couple in the car but no one’s wearing seat belts.
“And then you start to go back into the history of the footballers who have passed away as a result of car accidents. And then there is verification of the flouting of the laws, publicly and in the open, because it’s probably deemed to be pretty cool to do that.
“The thing is you have a fancy car but you’re not going to use all of its safety features, with which it comes in abundance, and wear a seat belt that is impact-sensitive so that the closer you get to an object, or if the system detects you’re not fully in control of the vehicle, it tightens to protect you. They’re not learning from things like how strapped up Formula 1 drivers are when they get into crazy crashes at 300km/h and still walk away, so it means that really works.
“No one’s above the law, nobody’s immune to death from accidents. Those are just one or two things I picked up as an extra to say: ‘Wow, haven’t we suffered a lot with car accidents involving football players and here you’re almost daring death?’”
The trappings of celebrity lifestyles have cost many footballers their careers, or even their lives. Some drank at levels damaging to the abilities of a professional sportsperson. Some have gone bankrupt and been led astray by the demands of uncaring hangers-on. The fast lifestyle has claimed far too many in car accidents.
Meyiwa, at 30, was at the peak of his playing ability when he was murdered. The documentary does not suggest any notably untoward or damaging lifestyle practices, and by all accounts there were none. But the effects of the complicated love triangle and consequent dangerous tensions surrounding the Pirates captain’s life are portrayed as producing some form of peril that trapped the ultimately simple and humble lad from the township of Umlazi, outside Durban.
“It’s always difficult,” Marawa said. “[Ex-Kaizer Chiefs star] Junior Khanye has written a book about his rise and fall and it’s all the same story. Young men coming into something — the clubs don’t assist any of these players in their lifestyle choices.
“They’ll just be like: ‘Oh, you’ve come from earning R200 somewhere, but here’s R55,000 a month.’ If you’ve had no one to help you, you’re obviously going to look at that money and say: ‘It has to be spent, and it must be spent this weekend. We’re going into the Easter long weekend — how many crates of beer do we need?’
“That’s the way the players live, unfortunately, because there is no guidance. And with Senzo, the more he became prominent and brilliant at what he was doing, and people started taking notice of it, I think he almost felt the need to live that rock star lifestyle.”
Meyiwa had played crucial roles in Pirates reaching the 2013 Caf Champions League final, and Bafana being on the verge of qualifying, which they later did, for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations when he was murdered.
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