Lesley Musina Lesley Musina
“I made the things that it cannot make that pots to be done.” What? Yes, that doesn’t make sense, but it is part of South African pop culture.
Not so long ago, that line was said by a girl featured on the hit consumer awareness show, Speak Out. The incomprehensible sentence was an answer to a legitimate question about the whereabouts of some missing pots in one of the show’s episodes.
Speak Out trended that night, but that’s not new as it keeps trending, whether they are talking about pots or not. With the new season starting tonight, a new addition comes to the Speak Out family in the form of Lesley Musina, who will host the show. The actor, who is on Muvhango, is the perfect fit for the show as he has always been a fan.
“I am so excited to be part of this show because I’ve been a fan for a long time. I haven’t watched all episodes, but I have watched all of the seasons. I like the idea of helping ordinary people who need consumer advice or intervention in the problematic situations they find themselves in,” he said.
Musina spoke about why he is keen to take the job, which sees him intervene between disgruntled consumers and their respective service providers.
“Every presenter before me had their way of hosting the show and the same applies to me. I am not an aggressive person, but I am firm. Certain people whom we feature on this show lie for a living and they do it pretty well, so we have to be firm. By the time we get to an episode we know more or less what to expect. I have been reading the Consumer Protection Act to be well prepared. Something that happens every now and then when we get to the place that has a complaint laid against them is they are lawyered up. So they hide behind their counsel. What that means is that you need to know the legal terms and what they mean.
“Often the lawyers are quick to tell us that we are in contempt, so we need to find ways of getting past that,” he said.
“Just like the lawyer is looking out for their clients, I am there looking out for the people who come to us,” he added.
Looking into the new season, without giving away too much, Musina spoke about a particular case that he found interesting.
“One time, we had to take on a case where a person had deposited R40 000 for a car that was pegged for sale at R90 000 and they never got it.
“To date, they still don’t have the car, despite going to lawyers for help. He was just getting the run-around. When we did some digging on the guy they were complaining about, we found that there many other people who had laid complaints against this guy. So we show the viewer how we dealt with that case,” he revealed.
Thanks to him studying a bit of the law, Musina now knows how to approach the cases that are presented to him and feels that the ordinary South African should do the same to avoid being cheated.
“What people need ?to understand is that the Consumer Protection Act is actually there to protect people and if we learn it, we will not be taken for a ride by companies or service providers,” he said.
With that said, Musina made it clear that he doesn’t want the show to be despised by business people. Instead, he feels the show is there to educate people about their rights.
“The other thing that I want to make clear is that Speak Out is not about trying to pull down companies. Companies also have rights and need to be protected to operate, but in that same vein, so do the people they do business with.
“If I buy something from you there should be a warranty or guarantee that comes with that product.
“I am actually being educated on this show about how this whole trading scenario works. In fact, we have a new segment on the show where I put questions to a professional to highlight more things that are related to a case than we would have dealt with,” he said.
Given that several people have walked in the hosting shoes for Speak Out, what does Musina bring, you might wonder.
“I plan to bring a lot to this show. The first thing is I am multilingual so I can relate to a lot of people. You can take me to any rural part of South Africa and I will be able to understand what they are saying. I have had to deal with foreign nationals, too. I also speak Afrikaans so that will add some demographics that were not covered before.
“I also bring in the techno-savvy side and – I stand to be corrected – but I think I am the youngest presenter to be on this show so I am hoping to attract young viewers,” he explained.
• Speak Out airs tonight, SABC2, 9.30pm.
