Vodacom Says CEO’s Offer to ‘Please Call Me’ Inventor Reasonable

Vodacom Reasonable Offer: Vodacom says its CEO, Shameel Joosub’s, determination of compensation to Nkosana Makate for his “please call me (PCM)” idea was reasonable and his process was eminently fair and Makate was bound by it. 

The telecommunications giant made this assertion in its replying submissions before the Constitutional Court, where it is appealing against a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment earlier this year. 

Vodacom Reasonable Offer

Vodacom and Makate will be back at the apex court later this month as the country’s largest mobile network operator continues attempts to avoid paying what it claims could be between R29 billion and R63bn to Makate as compensation for his idea.

However, Makate’s advocates state that: “In any event, the entire interests of justice section states that Vodacom will suffer a series of ill effects if the majority order (three out of five judges) is imposed and if the amount of the quantum is in the order of R40bn.”

In the heads of arguments filed on October 18, Makate said underneath that amount, Vodacom would not suffer any drastic effects.

“But the quantum, as Makate stated on oath before this court (Constitutional Court) in his answering affidavit, while still substantial, is an order of magnitude less – at R9.4bn,” he said.

Makate said for the last 24 years Vodacom had attempted to escape paying a contractual debt to him as its contractual partner in a contract whose terms were proved in the trial court, and those factual findings were not interfered with by the Constitutional Court in its 2016 judgment declaring him the inventor of the product and that he should be compensated.

In his submission, Makate said Vodacom has had no difficulty in settling prior disputes for amounts equal or beyond what Makate is owed under the SCA’s order.

“Vodacom did not plead in its answering affidavit that the payment it would be required to make would have a substantial or devastating impact on it … the figures of R65bn are, with respect, entirely sensational,” read the papers.

Also Read: How To Transfer Data from MTN to Vodacom in South Africa in 2025

Vodacom Rejects Inventor’s Demands 

Vodacom said that a payment of R40bn would negatively impact it, but the amount due to Makate under the majority of the SCA’s order is substantially less than R40bn.

The apex court has been told that Vodacom pays dividends annually to shareholders of between R13bn and R14bn and that, even separately, the company has sufficient funds available to spend a further R12bn a year (or R60bn over five years) in network investment.

“Vodacom Reasonable Offer. The payment of Makate’s claim would plainly not be the demise of Vodacom or its partners. At best, it might mean that Vodacom delays its ‘commitment’ to improving its network for one year,” the papers further state.

Vodacom wants to overturn the SCA majority judgment handed down in February this year confirming North Gauteng High Court Judge Wendy Hughes’ February 2022 ruling ordering the company to make a new determination and not the R47m it offered Makate after the Constitutional Court ordered that the accountant be recognised as the inventor of Please Call Me in April 2016.

Judge Hughes ordered that Vodacom chief executive Shameel Joosub was obliged to make a fresh determination that Makate is entitled to be paid 5% of the total revenue generated from the Please Call Me product between March 2001 and March 2021.

Vodacom wants the SCA’s order set aside and replaced with one that upholds its appeal and replaces Judge Hughes’ ruling with a decision that Makate’s application is dismissed with costs.

In the alternative, Vodacom wants the matter referred back to the SCA for a fresh hearing of its appeal by a differently constituted bench.

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