'Please Call Me' hearing to be exactly 24 years since idea submitted to Vodacom

The Constitutional Court has set November 21 as the date for the compensation battle between Nkosana Makate and Vodacom

When Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate marks the 24th anniversary since he submitted the proposal for his invention to Vodacom,  he will be in the Constitutional Court fighting for what he believes to be a fair compensation.

The apex court has set November 21 as the date for Vodacom's appeal application against the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA), which ruled in favour of Makate who had rejected a R47m compensation offered by Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub.

Thursday November 21 will be exactly 24 years since Makate submitted his idea, which gave birth to the successful “Please Call Me” concept.

Makate was overjoyed that the highest court in the land has now set a date for the matter.

“November has always been an auspicious month; my wife, who inspired PCM, was born on November 1,” Makate said.

“A dear friend and whistle-blower in this matter, Mr Teboho Motaung, also has his birthday in November.

“It is quite significant and naturally coincidental that the hearing of the Vodacom appeal is scheduled for the exact day I approached Vodacom executives with a proposal for this groundbreaking and hugely successful product 24 years ago,” Makate said.

Motaung, a former senior accountant at Vodacom who was responsible for calculating Vodacom’s business partners’ commissions, said under oath in 2020 that 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 cellphone company had calculated how much it made from the Please Call Me service as far back as December 2015.

“I am happy now that the Constitutional Court is moving ahead with the matter and that it seems like it might be over this year,” Makate said.

The SCA set aside a R47m offer that Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub made to Makate five years ago, which Makate rejected. Instead, the court 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, Vodacom approached the Constitutional Court to quash a ruling by the SCA that it should make a new compensation offer to Makate. 

Vodacom says the impact of the SCA ruling would translate to a payout of possibly up to R63bn — which Makate denies, saying it's an exaggeration. He estimates that his compensation, guided by the SCA ruling, would be about R9.6bn.

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