Vodacom heads for another Please Call Me showdown – BusinessTech

Mobile telecommunications group Vodacom has informed shareholders that the ongoing Please Call Me matter will be heard by the Constitutional Court.

The group received a directive from the ConCourt that it would hear the matter following the judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of Appeal on 6 February 2024.

“Vodacom confirms that on 26 August 2024, the Constitutional Court of South Africa issued a directive that it will hear Vodacom South Africa’s application for leave to appeal in the Please Call Me matter, in tandem with its appeal against the SCA Judgment,” Vodacom said.

The Chief Justice has reportedly given Vodacom until Thursday, 26 September 2024 to file an abridged paginated record to determine the issues that must be heard.

It then has until Thursday, 10 October to file written arguments. Makate’s team has until 17 October to file their written arguments.

The date of the hearing will be set in due course.

Vodacom has been fighting a decades-long battle over the Please Call Me service, brought by its purported inventor, Kenneth Makate.

According to Makate, he had an idea for a free missed-call service that he shared with his superior at Vodacom in 2001. The service aimed to allow customers to get their contacts’ attention without using airtime.

As reported by Daily Investor, Vodacom launched the service, known as Please Call Me, in March 2001, and it became widely used across South Africa.

Makate then launched a lengthy legal battle against Vodacom in 2008, seeking compensation for his idea.

Makate’s legal team had initially demanded R20 billion to compensate him for his idea, based on a calculation that the Please Call Me product had generated R205 billion in revenue since its implementation. 

Vodacom did not share Makate’s views on how much revenue the service generated or how much he deserved. The courts, however, sided with Makate on the matter.

After being ordered to fairly compensate Makate for his idea, Vodacom initially offered him R10 million. Makate rejected this offer, and Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub’s team then constructed four models to estimate how much Makate should get based on different scenarios.

After averaging the two models with the highest values, he came up with an offer of R47 million. However, Makate rejected this as well, and the matter again ended up in court.

Makate approached the High Court, and in February 2024, the court ruled in his favour. Vodacom appealed this ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

However, the Supreme Court dismissed Vodacom’s appeal and ordered the company to compensate Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the revenue generated by the service over 18 years.

According to MyBroadband’s analysis, this ranges from R28.99 billion to R55.37 billion using the models accepted by the court.

Vodacom noted in March that it was on the hook for between R40 billion and R63 billion, based on this order.

However, a twist in June—where Makate’s legal team opposed Vodacom’s majority shareholder, Vodafone, from joining proceedings—revealed that he was ‘only’ seeking the compensation claimed in 2020, which was R9.7 billion.

He said his claim from 2020 still stands – R9.7 billion.

The Constitutional Court will now hear the matter once again.

Read: Another twist in ‘R63 billion’ Please Call Me saga