Last week
Muvhango executive producer Duma Ndlovu
made a statement saying that actor
Mutodi Neshehe's contract won't be renewed because of his underperformance, lack of commitment and failure to arrive on set.
Neshehe, who plays Ndalamo Mukhwevo on the soapie, has disputed the allegations.
"How can I be finding out about it in the papers if I'm fired?" he told TVSA late on Friday afternoon. "I left the show and all of a sudden I get fired for not coming to work - after my contract expired. Who gets fired after their contract's expired?"
The dispute between the show and the actor centres round Neshehe's May salary.
Ndlovu claims Neshehe hasn't been paid his final salary because he hasn't completed his contracted scenes and Neshehe claims he completed his contractual obligations and was asked to come back after his contract expired.
"My contract was over on the 31 May and they wanted me to shoot on the 3 or 4 of June, "says Neshehe. "Because I showed no interest in that they decided not to pay me for the month of May - I filmed in May."
According to Neshehe things on set started to get tense in February when the show's floor manager changed his attitude towards him.
"Duma met with me and my agent - there was this week afterwards where suddenly the story was that I didn't go to work, people didn't like working with me - I was a model citizen until February. I was like, 'Why - all of a sudden - is this one floor manager being kinda rude and not joking like he usually does?' Just that one week.
When asked why a floor manager would turn bad, Neshehe elaborated: "The show has a tendency to try to make life dfficult for you and try to devalue you - they actually make up stories. They make up fabricated stories - stuff that's total bull."
"I think somebody told him to make me look bad - after that week, he was laughing and funny and joking again. My view is that the new contracts were coming up in June so they tried to devalue me so I wouldn't ask for more money and would walk on eggshells."
"There were the same excuses for
Lerato Moloi and
Mara Louw - it's kinda like: can't people be creative? If you're gonna lie, make up an interesting lie around a dispute with an actor."
As for why the missing scenes haven't been completed, Neshehe claims he arrived on set to film the scenes. "I've been on set at least seven ties to shoot these scenes he's alledgedy talking about," Neshehe says, "but obviously they're not organised enough to get the scenes down. Why should I come back and work for somebody when they haven't paid me?
"Why doesn't he (Ndlovu) call me and ask me to shoot the scenes? He's called other actors to tell me to come back but he hasn't called me - he's got my number. He obviously doesn't have the balls to call me and say, "Can we talk?" Instead he's holding my money so he can have some leverage."
The character of Ndalamo Mukhwevo will be written out of the show and Neshehe will make his final on-screen appearance in November 2008.