Makate ready for next round in Vodacom Please Call Me battle
Nkosana Makate’s battle against Vodacom over the “Please Call Me” idea will soon return to the Supreme Court of Appeal for the latest court case in the 15-year-long controversy.
Vodacom will be appealing the judgement by the North Gauteng High Court that it must provide Makate with 5% of the total voice revenue generated from the Please Call Me between March 2001 and March 2021.
“The Constitutional Court did not make a determination on the methodology for the computation of reasonable compensation, but left this to the parties to resolve through dialogue and negotiations,” said Vodacom to the Sunday Times earlier this week.
“In the event of a failure to find a resolution, the court ruled that Vodacom Group’s CEO [Shameel Joosub] would, acting as a deadlock-breaking mechanism, determine the amount of reasonable compensation payable to Mr Makate.”
Vodacom is therefore arguing that the court made an error by setting aside Joosub’s initial R47m determination.
Joosub used four different models that could have been used to determine Makate’s compensation, which amounted to:
- R51.5 million
- R21.8 million
- R42.2 million
- R38.1 million
The R47 million offer is the average of the two most favourable outcomes for Makate — rounded up to R47 million.
In contrast, Makate has claimed that he is entitled to up to 15% of the revenue generated from the Please Call Me idea, which could total as much as R110 billion.
Vodacom’s entire market capitalisation at the close of trading on Friday was R237 billion.
Makate’s journey
Makate sent his first letter of demand in 2007, and has been embroiled in a legal battle for the next 15 years of his life. He told the Sunday Times that this battle has been “a rollercoaster.”
“I don’t think my current legal team would want to take a case like mine again, but we are in it, and we need to finish it,” said Makate.
“Vodacom is a massive company with a big balance sheet, and they are obviously going to fight very hard.”
He added that he has returned to exercising and is trying to travel more in an attempt to manage his stress.
“I’m back to just living. I’ve reached a point where I say my life still needs to continue,” he said.
As a Vodacom finance manager, Makate pitched his idea of a method to “buzz” someone else’s phone without airtime to a superior on 21 November 2000.
His idea was ultimately developed into Please Call Me, which launched on the Vodacom network in January 2001.
Makate launched legal action against Vodacom in 2008 after sending letters to the network in 2007, claiming that he was promised compensation as the inventor of Please Call Me.
The matter made its way to the Constitutional Court, which ruled in 2016 that Makate was entitled to payment.
After rejecting Vodacom’s R47-million offer, Makate launched a fresh legal challenge in the Pretoria High Court, obtaining a ruling in his favour in February 2022.
On 11 April 2022, Judge Wendy Hughes granted Vodacom leave to appeal her earlier ruling.
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