“Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate was “devastated” after suffering a costly court defeat 11 years ago when the Johannesburg high court shot down his bid for recognition for his idea and denied him leave for appeal.
Now Makate, 49, will on Thursday morning know how much he stands to be compensated as the Constitutional Court delivers its ruling.
“I was devastated in 2014 because the court also dismissed the case with costs. But I always had faith in the Constitutional Court because that was always the thrust of our case and planning. If there was a court to address this injustice, it’s the apex court,” Makate said.
He said though the high court ruling did not go in his favour, it was “not bad because it affirmed my commercial contract and how I was ‘written out of the commercial script’ by Alan Knott-Craig [Vodacom CEO at the time] and Phillip Geissler through their collusive behaviour”.
Makate said now and July 2014 are not comparable.
“One can’t compare [the two]. In 2014 I lost almost all and was concerned about the road ahead. Today, I wait for the ConCourt to confirm the Supreme Court of Appeals’ [SCA] response judgment,” he said.
Makate, an accountant for the South African Local Government Association, was 24 when he came up with the Please Call Me idea.
Makate filed papers with the ConCourt in 2015 after the SCA rejected his application for leave to appeal a high court ruling dismissing his bid for compensation, saying the matter had prescribed.
Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub made a R47m settlement offer to Makate six years ago, which Makate rejected and went to court over. This time, the SCA ordered Vodacom to pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue generated by the Please Call Me service over 18 years from March 2001, plus interest.
In February last year, Vodacom approached the ConCourt to quash a ruling by the SCA that it should make a new compensation offer to Makate.
Vodacom argued the effect of the SCA ruling would translate to a payout of possibly up to R63bn. Makate denied this, saying it's an exaggeration.
He estimated his compensation, guided by the SCA ruling, would be about R9.6bn.
Makate said his revenue share model was backed by various whistle-blowers from Vodacom and that was what the apex court needed to deal with.
“So the SCA saw through this commercial case correctly,” he believes.
Teboho Motaung, a former senior accountant at Vodacom responsible for calculating Vodacom’s business partners’ commissions, said under oath in 2020 the company’s stance that it was unaware how much revenue had been generated through Makate’s product was false.
The accountant was one of two former Vodacom employees who testified that the company had calculated how much it made from the Please Call Me service as far back as December 2015.
Though the decision will only be delivered on Thursday, more than eight months since oral arguments, Makate expected the ruling to come much earlier.
“The ConCourt rushed us to the appearance on November 21 2024 and gave us unprecedented deadlines, especially on my side. This gave us the impression that the case would soon be finalised.”
Makate said despite the long wait, he remained patient and wanted to allow the court to do its work “correctly and diligently”.
“My patience remains firm. This journey has been long and hard; I would not wish it on anyone,” Makate said.
He said he hoped his case would inform similar future legal proceedings.
“All I can hope for is that my resilience will yield the fruits upon which future litigants will see their matters finalised hastily, because we have created solid laws and precedents along the way which lower courts can apply,” Makate said.
November marks the 25th anniversary since he submitted the proposal for his invention to Vodacom.
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