{"id":627621,"date":"2026-02-03T16:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=627621"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:00:50","slug":"final-fight-for-makates-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/627621-final-fight-for-makates-millions.html","title":{"rendered":"Final fight for Makate’s millions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Black Rock Mining has requested that the chairperson of the Pretoria Society of Advocates, Advocate Liezl Haupt, appoint an arbitrator regarding its dispute with Nkosana Kenneth Makate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate, who Vodacom credits with coming up with the idea that was developed into Please Call Me, had won an estimated R500 million settlement from the mobile operator after a bruising legal battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Rock’s request for an arbitrator comes after the seven-day period during which Makate’s attorneys were invited to confirm their agreement with the proposed arbitrators or propose alternatives had lapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Rock’s legal representatives, SN Mnguni Attorneys, sent Advocate Haupt a letter informing her that Makate’s attorneys had failed to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To date, Mr Makate’s attorneys have not responded to our correspondence, nor have they proposed alternative candidates. The parties have accordingly failed to agree on an arbitrator,” the firm wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We accordingly approach you [Advocate Haupt] in terms of clause 11 of the Funding Agreement to request the appointment of an arbitrator, being an advocate with no less than 10 years standing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SN Mnguni Attorneys acknowledged that Makate is represented in the dispute by Advocate CE Puckrin and Advocate R Michau, who are both members of the Pretoria Society of Advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It has been alleged in papers before the court that Mr Makate’s legal team are beneficiaries of a portion of his settlement proceedings, although this allegation has been denied,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, it is requesting that an arbitrator from the Johannesburg Society of Advocates or another division be appointed to the case to avoid a perception of partiality or conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband asked Makate and his legal representatives, Stemela and Lubbe Inc., about the arbitration process, but they hadn’t answered our questions by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Errol Elsdon, through his British Virgin Islands company Black Rock Mining, is Makate’s former backer in his litigation against Vodacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the arbitration process, Elsdon is hoping to force Makate to honour a disputed 2011 litigation funding agreement, through which he lays claim to 40% of Makate’s settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Rock initially moved to block Makate from accessing 40% of his settlement payment. It argued that Makate would dissipate, transfer, or distribute the funds to third parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Rock filed an interdict application at the Johannesburg High Court, which was heard on 4 December 2025 and dismissed four days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acting Judge Don Mahon found that Black Rock hadn’t provided enough evidence to show that Makate intended to dissipate the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Without evidence of dissipation or irreparable harm, the application cannot meet the requirements of urgency or interim interdictory relief,” he said in his ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously with the interdict application, Black Rock began the process to refer the matter to arbitration for a ruling on its claim. It initially sought a hearing date in mid-December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over R100 million in the balance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Errol Elsdon, former funder of Nkosana Makate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elsdon’s claim followed Makate and Vodacom’s announcement that they had settled their legal battle, which spanned 18 years, in early November 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal battle followed Makate’s claim that he was promised compensation for pitching an idea that Vodacom’s product team developed into Please Call Me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While neither party disclosed the settlement amount, it was possible to estimate a ballpark figure by comparing Vodacom’s estimated earnings disclosures before and after the settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on this, Makate received between R353 million and R748 million from Vodacom, which would make Black Rock’s before-tax claim between R141.2 million and R299.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court papers, Elsdon said Black Rock had raised and applied the initial R4.39 million in funding for Makate’s case against South Africa’s largest mobile network operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Of this, R2.4 million was paid to Stemela & Lubbe in respect of fees disbursements, with the balance applied to counsel, expert witnesses, and litigation expenses,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also alleged that Stemela & Lubbe had plotted to sideline him, much as Makate’s initial backer, the late Chris Schoeman, had alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further alleged that Schoeman, who brought Elsdon into the case, and Wilna Lubbe of Stemela & Lubbe, were the primary protagonists trying to sideline him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Elsdon, Lubbe only sidelined Schoeman after he had already been forced out. He believes the initial scheme was to sideline him, but it backfired on Schoeman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Schoeman, shortly before his death, confided in me that he was in fact the author of the letters dispatched on the Hahn & Hahn letterhead, which were sent to himself,” said Elsdon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was therefore a coordinated attempt to try and sideline me and the original funders from the litigation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lubbe previously denied allegations of a conspiracy to push out Makate’s original funders and vowed to challenge the claims against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Makate’s affidavit responding to Elsdon’s accusations, he stated that Schoeman’s deathbed confession was hearsay at best and inaccurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate said he took advice from Reinard Michau, one of his team’s associates, on whom to appoint to terminate the original funding agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate said he alone instructed Hahn & Hahn and no one else. He also said he made an affidavit to this effect in 2016, which Elsdon is aware of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am not sure on what basis he can say that it was Schoeman who instructed Hahn & Hahn,” said Makate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Rock Mining could proceed with arbitration proceedings without Nkosana Makate or his legal representation present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":553772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[102165,21003,20999,102278,20801,94239,41,102168],"class_list":["post-627621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-black-rock-mining","tag-chris-schoeman","tag-errol-elsdon","tag-nkosana-kenneth-makate","tag-please-call-me","tag-stemela-and-lubbe","tag-vodacom","tag-wilna-lubbe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627621"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627704,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627621\/revisions\/627704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}