Polygamist Musa Mseleku allegedly owes his former colleagues, Zakhele Gumede and Musa Ntsebesha, R200, 000.
They also alleged that he promised them 2% of ownership in Mseleku’s company, Thanks Ma.
The R200, 000 was for their work, for helping Mseleku establish his production company, UThando Nesthembu.
Ntsebesha exposed Mseleku on Daily Reports Platform Podcast.
“I met Musa in 2016 in one of the local municipalities. Mseleku was one of the consultants there and he was with his wife, Thobile Mseleku.
Mseleku approached him about show idea in 2016
“I introduced myself to them, and they liked my work. At that time Thobile was working for one of the radio stations in KZN. We developed a good relationship, so much that I ended up managing her,” explained Ntsebesha.
Mseleku approached him in the same year.
“He told me about UThando Nesthembu idea, but he was struggling to get it off the ground. And he wanted to make a reality show but he didn’t have the right skills to do that.
“As a result, he asked me to assist him. He was impressed with my work on MaKhumalo. And he believed I could do the same with UThando Nesthembu,” said Ntsebesha
“In our first meeting, Mseleku promised us heaven and earth. He said our lives will never be the same again as long as we help him to start a production company, Thanks, Ma.
“The condition was that we’d own 2% shares of that production company. We trusted him and agreed,” he said.
By mid-2016, Ntsebesha wrote Season 1 and made the trailer for UThando Nesthembu.
“The first shoot was MaCele’s birthday at the Hotel in Port Shepstone, south of KZN. I then took MaCele to the studio for voice over.
Promised written contracts, 2% shares in project
“By this time, Mseleku had promised us written contracts from his lawyers. These …were to detail the terms and conditions of our agreement,” recalled Ntsebesha.
After MaCele’s birthday, the trailer and Season 1 were allegedly sent to M-Net.
“We sent the trailer and Season 1 in October 2016. And in January 2017 we were called for presentation.
“The M-Net team was impressed with our work. I can even recall that on our way back to KZN, Mseleku received a message from M-Net informing us that we’ve been successful,” recalls Ntsebesha.
“Weeks later, Mseleku received another communication. This was informing him that we need to go back to Johannesburg to sign the deal with M-Net.
Once M-Net approved, Mseleku shut them out, signed deal alone
“That is where problems started. After that invitation, he never spoke about the deal. I’m not sure who he took to sign, because he left me and Gumede behind.
“I didn’t follow up on this because I knew we already had a deal with him.”
He told Sunday World that, initially, M-Net approved Seasons 1 and 2. And Mseleku’s company received 25% in profits.
“This is because his company was still new and it was not producing the show. However, problems had already started. From Season 1, we could see that we were no longer welcomed.
“We couldn’t quit because we’d invested our time in the project and we’d been promised 2% shares,” he said.
Had many fights with Mseleku over matter
But they never received the shares and R200,000.
“We had so many fights with Mseleku because he wanted me to be included as a student. But I refused; I told him I was the main producer.
He also didn’t pay us our money, and we didn’t receive the shares,” said Ntsebesha.
Gumede confirmed Ntsebesha’s allegations. “I was there, and it’s all true. Mseleku exploited us,” he said.
Mseleku was approached on different platforms, including phone calls, text messages and on social media. However, he failed to respond.
