Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate wins appeal against Vodacom

by Bongiwe Mati

Please Call Me service inventor Kenneth Nkosana Makate came out victorious when telecoms giant Vodacom lost its appeal against the ruling for fair compensation from the revenue generated for Nkosana’s Please Call Me invention.

According to reports, Nkosana’s idea came almost two decades ago when he was in a distant relationship with his then-girlfriend whom he is now married to. To make communication easy with his then long-distance relationship the former Vodacom employee thought of an idea which later generated billions of rands for the giant telecommunication company.

This matter was concluded at the Supreme Court of Appeal recently, ordering Vodacom to pay Nkosana more than the R47 million they were willing to pay when the initial judgement was passed in 2019.

Vodacom now has to go back to the drawing board as the court has given them one month to recalculate what they owe Nkosana.

An electronic copy of the judgement reads:

“The appellant (Vodacom) is ordered to pay the costs of the appeal, including the costs of three counsel, namely the costs of two senior and one junior counsel.”

It further states:

“The matter is remitted to the second respondent for him to determine the amount of reasonable compensation due to the applicant, in accordance with the four models in his determination of 9 January, solely on the basis that the second respondent would have awarded the applicant a contract for 18 – years, commencing on 1 March 2001 and terminating on 28 February 2019.”

“The award made by the second respondent shall take into account the time value of money, calculated at an average inflation rate of 5%, from 1 March 2001 to 28 February 2019.”

The telecom company has however indicated that it plans to appeal the latest ruling by the Supreme Court.

READ: Court judgement of the Vodacom (Pty) Ltd vs Keneth Nkosinathi Makate case.

Also see: ‘They don’t want us to come to parliament during the SONA,’ says Julius Malema