The high court, sitting in Pretoria, has sided with Vodacom’s former employer, Nkosana Makate, regarding the “please call me” idea. The constitutional court recently decided this long-running legal battle in favour of Makate as the inventor of this idea, thereby entitled to a settlement. The judgement found that Vodacom underpaid him and must decide on a suitable figure.
According to Vodacom, “Please Call Me” is a free SMS service that allows you to send “Please Call Me” messages to other subscribers. A subscriber can send 10 such messages a day to other subscribers requesting them to call back.
According to IOL News, Vodacom’s CEO Shameel Joosub was given a month to determine the overall amount due to Makate based on the court’s issued guideline. With this judgement, it is expected that Vodacom will spend more than the previously offered R47million. This is based on the ruling by Justice Wendy Hughes that Makate is entitled to 5 per cent of the total revenue from the “please call me” over 20 years.
Initially, Makate has requested at least R10billion in compensation from the telecommunication company. However, Vodacom has decided to appeal the judgement. In a statement from a company’s spokesperson to TechCentral, the company has resolved to appeal based on what was viewed as an offer of good faith premised on the April 26, 2016 court order.
Makate and Vodacom
Makate is a typical town boy that grew up in Katlehong, east of Johannesburg. He started working for Vodacom in 1995 through a government effort initiative requiring telecommunications businesses to teach employees in accounting
Makate had the “please call Me” concept in November 2020 and presented it to his manager, who forwarded it on to Vodacom’s director of product development, Philip Geissler. Makate claims there was a verbal agreement with Geissler to be compensated for the idea.
The concept was launched in March 2001 as about 140 000 users took up the service on the first day. Vodacom refused to compensate Makate until he left them in 2003. However, the case reached the High court in 2014.