As successful as season 1 of Dinner At Somizi’s was, getting the ball rolling for season 2 will be a bit difficult for the team as Hastings Moeng is not backing down without a fight. He has escalated his fight against Somizi Mhlongo, Barleader TV & Multichoice by serving the three parties with summons on December 30 2019 for allegedly stealing his idea for Dinner At Somizi’s.
Read more: Somizi Accused Of Stealing Dinner At Somizi’s Concept!
Hastings Moeng demands compensation as well as an additional 15% interest for Somizi’s cooking show as it is his brain child. In addition to that he wants to be contracted for the coming seasons of Dinner At Somizi’s and also to deem their verbal contract which was made in 2013 as valid.
See also: Dinner At Somizi’s Season 2 Will Be Delayed
Author Eusebius McKaiser revealed the summons on Twitter and the caption accompanying his post reads; “Somizi Mhlongo, Barleader TV & Multichoice have had summons served today on behalf of Hastings Moeng seeking “reasonable compensation” plus “15% interest” as the alleged originator of the concept Dinner With Somizi.
“Moeng wants the court to declare his verbal contract as valid & binding (supported by email evidence that it exists); wants the court to declare the concept underpinning Somizi’s show as Moeng’s brainchild & wants the court to direct “reasonable compensation” to be given to Moeng plus rights to contract future seasons etc.”
When news broke, Eusebius came with the receipts to try and prove Moeng’s claims saying he sent an email to Somizi and Themba on July 28 2014, proposing a cooking show Dinner Kwa Somizi.
“On 28 July 2014, Hastings Moeng proposed DinnerAtSomizis to Somizi & Themba. The description of the show is materially similar to the one now flighted (to the shock of Mr Moeng),” he wrote.
Hastings then sent a treatment synopsis of the show to the producer Legend Manqele and they apparently used his concept to produce the show.
“On 2 September 2016 Hastings Moeng wrote to Legend (the current producer) with a synposis for #DinnerAtSomizis . You can see the treatment synopsis below. And judge for yourself. Why is IP theft so rife in entertainment? Multichoice is being coy despite being shown this.”
Denying these allegations, Somizi said he did not receive any email from Hastings, and he also said he does not open his own emails. Somgaga did not dispute the fact that he was approached by Hastings to do the show, adding that he was approached verbally by Hastings.
“I only spoke to him once. I think it was in 2013, not 2014. He told me he wants us to do a cooking show (called) “Dinner with Somizi,” or something like that. But I have never seen any documents.”