Makate and Vodacom settle Please Call Me case
Vodacom and Nkosana Kenneth Makate have settled the Please Call Me case, which has been dragging in South Africa’s courts since 2008, for an undisclosed amount.
“The matter has been settled by the parties. Both parties are glad that finality has been reached in this regard,” Vodacom said in a statement published to the JSE news service.
“On 4 November 2025, the Vodacom board approved a settlement agreement, and the matter was settled by the parties out of court.”
Vodacom stated that the settlement has been accounted for in the group’s interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2025, due to be released on 10 November.
“As part of the settlement process, a notice was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeal withdrawing Vodacom’s appeal,” the company said.
“Additionally, a notice was sent to the High Court to abandon the 8 February 2022 judgment.”
Makate confirmed the settlement and declined to reveal the figure. “In response to media queries. Indeed, the ‘Please Call Me’ matter has been settled and is subject to confidentiality,” he said.
Makate and Vodacom settled the matter after it was due to be reheard in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on 18 November 2025, after the Constitutional Court declared a mistrial.
Vodacom had initially approached the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling in favour of Makate delivered by the High Court.
However, the SCA ruled in favour of Makate and substituted the High Court ruling with its own, stating that Vodacom must pay the Please Call Me idea-man 5%–7.5% revenue share.
It also ruled that Vodacom must use Makate’s models to calculate the appropriate compensation amount and must add interest over the period.
Vodacom approached the Constitutional Court to challenge the SCA’s ruling, arguing that the judges concurring with the majority judgment had failed to consider critical evidence, denying its right to a fair trial.
The mobile operator also argued that the SCA’s order was unenforceable, as it created a range of compensation between R29 billion and R63 billion. Additionally, it was unclear how interest should be calculated.
The Constitutional Court found in favour of Vodacom, delivering a scathing judgment against the Supreme Court for presiding over a “total failure of justice”.
Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who retired on the day he delivered the apex court’s unanimous ruling, said he and his fellow judges agonised over the issues presented.
Madlanga said contemplating the possibility of such total failure by a superior court was new ground within South Africa’s jurisprudence.
18 years of legal battles
This is not the first time the Please Call Me saga was before the Constitutional Court. In 2016, the court ruled that there was a verbal contract between Vodacom and Makate and that compensation was owed.
Makate had approached the Constitutional Court after losing in the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal.
The dispute between Makate and Vodacom dates back to 2007, when he first sent letters of demand claiming he was promised compensation for his role in Please Call Me. He launched legal action in 2008.
Seven years prior, while working as a trainee accountant at Vodacom, he pitched the idea of a method to “buzz” someone else’s phone without airtime.
In a memo dated 21 November 2000, Makate wrote to a superior about his idea, calling it the “buzzing option”.
According to an internal Vodacom newsletter, his idea was ultimately developed into Please Call Me, which launched on the Vodacom network in 2001 — almost three months after MTN.
Although Makate was not involved in the development or launch of the product (and compelling evidence that MTN was actually the original inventor of “Call Me”), he said he was promised compensation.
Internal Vodacom emails presented in court showed that former product development head Philip Geissler had promised Makate that he would speak to former CEO Alan Knott-Craig about a suitable reward.
Geissler had assured Makate that if Please Call Me proved successful, he would speak to then-CEO Alan Knott-Craig about “rewards” for his idea.
However, he also cautioned, albeit more diplomatically, that there likely wouldn’t be an additional cash reward for doing your job.
“As for rewards. All staff are expected to assist the company to achieve its goals. That is part of normal business,” Geissler wrote to Makate in an email dated 6 February 2001.
“As for you and your assistance. Once the product is launched (and assuming it’s successful) I will speak to Alan. You have my word.”
Unfortunately, Geissler was never called to testify before the court, something the Constitutional Court took a dim view of.
Instead, Vodacom had relied on the testimony of Knott-Craig, whom the panel of judges had found to be a poor witness.
One key issue was that Knott-Craig took credit for coming up with Please Call Me in his autobiography, Second Is Nothing.
He was unable to reconcile his claims with Vodacom crediting Makate for the idea in an internal newsletter during the court hearings.
In contrast, Makate’s team had called his former manager, Lazarus Muchenje, to help corroborate that there had been a verbal contract. The court found Muchenje’s testimony more believable.
The Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom and Makate’s teams to negotiate reasonable compensation in good faith. However, it also had the foresight to designate a deadlock-breaker.
That deadlock breaker was the current CEO of Vodacom, Shameel Joosub. Upon reaching deadlock, Joosub used four models to determine suitable compensation and averaged the best two, offering Makate R47 million.
Makate rejected the offer, labelling it “shocking” and “an insult”. He returned to court to argue for compensation of up to R126 billion, obtaining favourable rulings in the High Court and SCA.
This resulted in Vodacom appealing to the apex court, which, on 31 July 2025, remanded the case back to the Supreme Court for a re-hearing.
After eighteen years, the matter is finally off the court roll and will receive one final mention in Vodacom’s results come next week.
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