Somizi Mhlongo has found himself on the receiving end of backlash after it was discovered that his new cooking show Dinner At Somizi’s is not his original idea.
Did Somizi Mhlongo steal the concept behind Dinner at Somizi’s?
An email chain between the Idols SA judge and a person known as Hastings Moeng has leaked on social media and if we are to believe the claims, then Dinner At Somizi’s is not the 47-year-old’s intellectual property.
In fact, the concept around the cooking show was presented to the star six years ago.
You can read the email chain below:
Information contained in the email, sent to Mhlongo on 28 July 2014, describes Dinner At Somizi’s as an “entertainment talk show that sees Mhlongo chat to fellow entertainers over dinner.”
Coincidentally, as you will see in the snippet below, this is the exact concept of the cooking show that airs on 1Magic (DStv channel 103) at 19:00 on Fridays.
Social media reacts to Somizi concept theft claims
Mhlongo, who was probably clocking into his day job as radio host on MetroFM when the emails ruptured social media, has yet to issue a response to the copyright claims.
Moreover, at the time of publishing this article, Multichoice had not issued a statement on the implications of the show’s future now that it has been muddied by claims of intellectual property theft.
Social media has not taken sides on this one. People are unanimous in the view that Mhlongo did Moeng dirty, if indeed, the 47-year-old dug into his emails and revived a show script that was not his.
These are just some of the reactions we picked out from the trending topic.
This is a developing story.