It appears what started as a tweet of a stolen concept idea has increased to legal levels. Hastings Moeng, claims to have pitched the idea of Dinner with Somizi is said that he is sueing Somizi and Bar Leader TV owner, Legend Manqele as he believes they stole the concept of Dinner with Somizi.
A statement narrating his end of the story was released by Legend Manqele. In hid statement he claims that the original concept of the cooking show began during lockdown level 4 and 5 as a virtual cooking show hosted by Somizi and his husband, Mohale Motaung and the show was initially named, “Straight out of the Kitchen”. Multichoice requested some changes to the show after shooting a couple of episodes and that is how they reached the final draft of Dinner with Somizi. Somizi at first wanted to host the show on YouTube but Manqele suggested they go with TV.
Dinner with Somizi reportedly sued
Legend Manqele stating that all the new developments to the show with Multichoice are well documented due to email exchanges and so they can be proved that there was no theft or plagiarism.
Concerning the email that Hastings supposedly sent to Manqele, Legend stated that, “It is correct that Mr Hastings approached me at the gym approximately eight years ago, in the early stages of my business and me about an idea that he had for a cooking show. I gave him my email address and asked that he email me. I do not recall ever receiving the email that Mr Hastings sent me 8 years ago. In fact, the evidence clearly shows that I never opened the email from Mr Hastings”.
Dinner with Somizi has since been cancelled by Multichoice therefore the issue remains unresolved. However, on the positive side, Somizi’s cook book is South Africa’s best selling food and beverage book!
