Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate has been waiting 21 years to get what he believes he deserves from Vodacom. And now he’ll have to wait a little longer.
The court battle between Makate and the cell giant, which is headed to the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA), has been hit by delays, with Vodacom missing the initial deadline for filing papers.
Vodacom is appealing a February ruling by the Pretoria high court, which rejected a R47m offer made to Makate by the cell company. It ordered that Vodacom make a fresh determination on a payment, with a directive that Makate is entitled to 5% of the total voice revenue generated from the Please Call Me product from March 2001, when it launched, to March 2021.
Vodacom had until August 5 to file the court record proceedings in the SCA.
In a statement to TimesLIVE Premium on Thursday, Vodacom said: “The deadline for the filing of the record ... has been extended by mutual consent between the parties, owing to its voluminous nature and laborious arrangements involved in putting such a record together.”
It said the “new filing date for the record is yet to be determined”.
With my non-existent financial resources, I would have filed that record on time. I have always filed on time.
— Nkosana Makate
According to SCA rules, an appellant is obliged to deliver copies of the record of proceedings in the court and to the respondents within three months of lodging the note of appeal.
Makate expressed unhappiness about the delays.
“The responsibility of filing this record is on Vodacom. Vodacom has extensive resources and any delay on this matter impacts one party only — and that’s me,” he said.
Makate said he did not understand why Vodacom had failed to make the deadline.
“With my non-existent financial resources, I would have filed that record on time. I have always filed on time.”
Makate’s lawyer Wilna Lubbe said they hoped the delays would be addressed as soon as possible.
“There seems to be an administrative delay ... both parties have agreed that it must be resolved urgently,” Lubbe said.
The Constitutional Court ruled in April 2016 that Makate must be recognised and compensated for his idea. He previously stated that he believed he was owed about R20bn for his Please Call Me invention.
He said the figure reflected a 5% share of an estimated R205bn revenue generated from the Please Call Me service, including interest calculated over an 18-year period.
Makate said he’s ready to continue his fight for fair compensation from his former employers, and would take it all the way back to the ConCourt if need be.
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