by Thinus Ferreira
The director and producer Legend Manqele has once again been accused of allegedly stealing a TV show and a TV show idea and on Thursday afternoon he once again denied the creative concept theft allegations, saying "I've never stolen a show in my life".
Legend Manqele responded after new allegations of TV show content theft.
This time Khuzani Mpungose and Legend Manqele are embroiled in a dispute with a producer over the ownership of the Maskandi artist's upcoming reality show, The Khuzani Bo! show that suddenly switched from MultiChoice to SABC1.
Musa Buthelezi, a producer from KwaZulu-Natal, is accusing Legend Manqele and Khuzani Mpungose of allegedly stealing his show idea and taking it to the South African public broadcaster's SABC1 channel without his consent.
Musa Buthelezi told tabloid newspapers that Khuzani Mpungose signed a letter of intent to produce a reality show about himself with Musa Buthelezi's company PSG.
Musa Buthelezi says he approached MultiChoice for the show idea with the letter of intent that Khuzani Mpungose signed, with MultiChoice that invited him to make presentations.
The letter of intent reads: "This letter grants producers permission to use the actor and the actor's name and licences in the pre-development of this project and on the final production from the date of the signing of this letter until post-production".
Musa Buthelezi was then shocked to discover that Legend Manqele's production company, BarLeader TV, that also produced Living the Dream with Somizi for Showmax, would be doing a reality show with Khuzani Mpungose for SABC1, with Legend Manqele attached as the producer.
Gugu Ntuli, SABC spokesperson, in a statement, says that "The Khuzani Bo! show has been licenced to SABC1 by the BarLeader TV productions. SABC1 is not aware of the allegations made by Musa Buthelezi regarding the ownership of the concept. Musa Buthelezi is welcome to take the matter up with The BarLeader TV productions".
In 2020 Hastings Moeng alleged that the concept for the show Dinner at Somizi's on M-Net's 1Magic (DStv 103) was stolen from him by Legend Manqele and BarLeader TV.
MultiChoice and BarLeader TV were served with letters of demand after Hastings Moeng, Legend Manqele and MultiChoice failed to reach an agreement and plans for a second season of the show was then put on hold.
The case remains unresolved with no further statement that has been made by MultiChoice about Dinner at Somizi's.
