Following a case of alleged copyright infringement, e.tv is calling the multiple, remarkable similarities between the free-to-air broadcaster's Imbewu drama series, and the dramatic play Imbewu that preceded it, simply coincidence.
It comes after a dispute over copyright according to The Mail & Guardian that first reported it, after the young playwright Sinethemba Twani (29) from Gugulethu, Cape Town, who works as a petrol attendant, noticed the multiple similarities between his play entitled Imbewu that enjoyed a successful stage run at the Artscape theatre, and e.tv's similarly entitled Imbewu that started in April.
Imbewu, the TV show, is produced by Grapevine Productions, a joint venture between Videovision Entertainment, Word of Mouth Pictures and Luys Productions with Duma Ndlovu and Anant Singh.
When Imbewu started on e.tv, Sinethemba Twani suddenly got congratulatory messages from family, friends and others who were under the impression that his Artscape stage production has been adapted into e.tv's TV series.
Besides the same titles, Imbewu the TV show shares several similarities with Imbewu the play - the first draft of which Sinethemba Twani wrote in 2011.
In both Imbewu's a business man is sterile. In both Imbewu's his wife is impregnated by someone else with his son who isn't his biological child and the man unaware of it. Both Imbewu's explore the repercussions of the secret.
The way in which the man in both Imbewu's discover they're sterile are the same - both hear it from a sangoma. The way in which the men in both Imbewu's find their initial investments as start-up capital for their business empires are the same.
In Imbewu the play a man convinces his friend to sell his cattle inheritance after the death of his father to invest in a start-up business (taxis). In e.tv's Imbewu a man convinces his brother to sell his cattle after the death of his father to invest in a start-up business (oil).
Michael Pocock, e.tv publicist, told The Mail & Guardian that Imbewu the script of Imbewu the TV series was developed in 2015 and that "the similarities are coincidental, and the story of Imbewu also reflects all the demographics of the KwaZulu-Natal region where it is based".
Last month content creator Glodine "Vuvu" Makapela also made an accusation of alleged copyright infringement on Twitter against David Tlale of The Intern that was on SABC3 and Pearl Modiadie of the SABC's reality design competition series on SABC1, Raw Silk that has been renewed for a second season, saying they stole her concept entitled Top Designer she came up with in 2011.
