Vodacom pleased with ConCourt PCM ruling, Makate feels dispute could’ve been finalised

Telecommunications giant Vodacom is pleased with the Constitutional Court's referral of its case against 'Please Call Me' inventor Nkosana Makate back to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Reacting to the court's decision in a brief statement, the company stated: “Vodacom is pleased that the Constitutional Court has upheld its appeal, with the case referred to a new panel of the Supreme Court of Appeal.”

Vodacom said it would “now review the judgment in full and take appropriate next steps”.

Makate, however, feels the highest court in the land could have finalised his protracted legal battle for compensation with Vodacom.

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Makate, reacting to the ruling at ConCourt, said: “I think the Constitutional Court should have probably finalised the matter. We still had the hearing at the high court which they could have gone into and ignored the SCA completely.”

He said he remained resilient and hoped the SCA would provide a judgment that would pass the test.

“Obviously we expected a different decision, we have to abide by the court's decision and we are going back to the SCA because they have said the SCA must apply themselves properly,” Makate said.

Delivering the unanimous judgment, outgoing acting deputy chief justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga said there were aspects of how the SCA judgment dealt with the case that were difficult to understand.

Madlanga said the SCA did not consider Vodacom's evidence that sought to show that Makate's calculation of what he was entitled to may have been incorrect.

“Everything about Vodacom's case was about demonstrating that Mr Makate's computation was wrong. So there was evidence that sought to demonstrate ... whether or not Vodacom would have succeeded in this regard is something else,” Madlanga said.

He added that the point was that the SCA “did not consider this evidence at all”.

The apex court ordered that the matter be heard by a differently constituted court in the SCA in Bloemfontein.

“This judgment merely highlights the fatal shortcomings in the SCA judgment, it does not make its own decision in any of the appellants’ issues, those are the very issues that ought to have been decided by the SCA,” Madlanga said while delivering his judgment on his last day at the court.

He said the just and equitable remedy was that the appeal be decided on its merits by the SCA.