SA's apex court to hear Vodacom's 'Please Call Me' case

South Africa's Constitutional Court (ConCourt) will hear an application from pan-African operator Vodacom Group for leave to appeal a ruling over compensation for its former employee Nkosana Makate, who is credited with coming up with the 'Please Call Me' (PCM) idea.

In a statement issued via the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) the telecommunication operator said the ConCourt issued a directive that it will hear its application to challenge a former ruling in the PCM matter.

Vodacom approached the ConCourt after a South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that Makate was entitled to receive between 5% to 7.5% of the total money generated from the idea, including interest, for revenue generated over 18 years, from 2001 to 2019.

That ruling meant that Makate would be entitled to compensation ranging between 29 billion rand (US$1.6 billion) and R63 billion ($3.5 billion).

Makate is credited for coming up with the PCM idea, which allows mobile users without any airtime to send a free text message requesting that someone call them, back in 2000.

Vodacom vowed to approach the ConCourt, citing that the SCA judgment and order were "fundamentally flawed" and called the orders "unintelligible, incomprehensible, and vague."

The 'Please Call Me' origins

The clash between Makate and Vodacom began in 2008, over the lack of compensation for his PCM idea, and since then, the matter has repeatedly appeared in the country's courts with no end in sight.

Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub. (Source: Vodacom Group)

The ConCourt ordered Vodacom to "negotiate in good faith" and provide "reasonable compensation" to Makate for his PCM idea in April 2016.

Furthermore, the apex court ordered Vodacom's current CEO, Shameel Joosub, to determine a reasonable amount of compensation to be paid to Makate when an agreement was not reached. Then in January 2019, Joosub offered R47 million (US$3.1 million at the time).

That offer was way below what Makate thought he deserved. He had originally asked Vodacom for 15% of all PCM revenue should the product be successful. In 2016, his legal counsel argued that would amount to around R10.5 billion ($693.6 million at the time).

The Pretoria High Court, in early 2022, set aside the Vodacom CEO's determination and ordered him to reconsider the settlement offered to Makate, and the case has continued in the courts ever since.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa