Nkosana Makate, the inventor of Please Call Me, agreed to meet with Vodacom, a giant telecommunications company. Vodacom claims that if the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA) Please Call Me ruling is upheld, it will have a significant and wide-ranging effect on both Vodacom South Africa and the Vodacom Group.
In order to overturn the SCA ruling, which mandated that the telecommunications company pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total revenue generated by the Please Call Me service, which was derived from the prepaid or contract offerings from March 2001 to March 2021 (18 years), including interest, Vodacom has petitioned the Constitutional Court.
It has been reported that this amount may exceed R20 billion. Wilna Lubbe, Makate’s lawyer, stated on Thursday that Makate had taken note of Vodacom’s request for a peaceful resolution to the issue. “He has not been approached directly, but has accepted the invitation in a letter directed to Vodacom’s lawyers. He proposed a meeting with Vodacom’s representatives within the next couple of days for meaningful negotiations,” said Lubbe.
Lubbe made it known that this is the first time Vodacom has expressed that it wants this issue resolved (since the negotiations came to a standstill in December 2017). Vodacom made a statement this week stating that, the SCA finding was “fundamentally flawed” and that some of its rulings were not in line with the letter or spirit of the law.
The company decided to go to the highest court after the Supreme Court rejected an appeals court application, and stated that Joosub ought to extend an offer to Makate. Vodacom must pay Makate the appropriate amount based on an assumption that he had an 18-year contract with the company. “It is apparent from the dissenting judgment of the SCA that the majority judgment overlooked or ignored many of the issues between the parties and their evidence and submissions relating to those issues,” said Vodacom.
According to the company, South Africa’s appeal as an investment destination will also be impacted by this ruling. They further claimed to have exhausted all avenues of communication with Makate in an attempt to devise a “reasonable compensation” plan. It’s said that Makate flatly turned down a settlement offer of R47 million from them.
“These efforts, to date, unfortunately have failed. Vodacom remains open to constructive dialogue and good-faith negotiations and, without prejudice to its constitutional court appeal process, to agree a fair and reasonable amount as compensation for Mr Makate’s idea that led to the development of the ‘please call me’ product. It is Vodacom’s desire that the matter be amicably resolved and brought to a timely conclusion.”
