Remember Chris Maroleng? He is pretty much out of the limelight these days, and the only time he gets to grace our telly screens is when a journalist wants soundbites to embellish a story about Maroleng’s new passion – governance issues. And that is once in a blue moon.

In years gone by, he was something of a household name. I came to know of him more than a decade ago, when he was an analyst at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). His intimate knowledge of the goings-on in Africa made him the go-to man for South African journalists seeking incisive commentary on conflicts and other newsworthy occurrences on the continent.

From the ISS he joined eNCA as the host of the free-to-air television channel’s Africa 360 show. This was followed by stints as the head of corporate affairs at telecoms giant MTN and as the COO of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). His departure from the public broadcaster was mired in controversy, with his erstwhile employers alleging misconduct as the reason they parted ways. Now he is the executive director of an outfit called Good Governance Africa.

Many South Africans will remember Maroleng for an incident in 2010 when he hosted rightwing group AWB’s then secretary-general, Andre Visagie, and political analyst Lebohang Pheko on his Africa 360 show days after the gruesome murder of AWB leader Eugene Terreblanche. During the discussion, which focused on race relations in South Africa, Pheko said something that enraged Visagie so much that he ripped off his lapel microphone and stormed off the set, before returning and bellowing: “You don’t dare interrupt me; I am not finished with you.” As Visagie bore down on Pheko, Maroleng leapt to his feet and wedged himself between his guests. Visage seemed determined to get to Pheko, prompting Maroleng to repeatedly shout: “Don’t touch me on my studio! Don’t touch me on my studio!” Visagie’s adamant response was: “I will touch you on your studio.”

I was reminded of the Visagie-Maroleng altercation – which became the focus of jokes by those fascinated by the pair’s mangling of the English language – when the SABC announced at the end of last month that it would be retrenching more than 600 of its employees. A bitter Twitter exchange ensued when it emerged that one of the public broadcaster’s top presenters – who, although he is now a naturalised South African, is of foreign origin – had survived the chop, while some journalists and others who are South African through and through now find themselves jobless. The exchange, which had perhaps the same number of people on either side, was quite robust, and one participant ended up trotting out Maroleng’s “Don’t touch me on my studio!” line when his adversary got quite personal.

I have said it before: discourses of the nature of the one involving the SABC presenter who some want gone are the canary in the coal mine that is the economy of any country. When they come to the fore, it’s a sure sign that the economy is in very bad shape. This is not playing out in South Africa for the first time. In Nigeria, when the economy was booming on the back of rising oil prices in the 1970s, scores moved to that country from Ghana to take up jobs in the public and private sectors. But when the Nigerian economy started tanking, attitudes towards “the neighbours from the west” started hardening, leading to mass deportations in 1983 and 1985.

So, the canary’s gasps for the oxygen that only a thriving economy can provide are becoming louder. But our economy is still caught in the undertow of Covid-19. Creative solutions are required to remedy the situation.