Makate looking at possibly billions for “Please call me” invention while at Vodacom

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Decades and decades long battle between “Please call me” inventor Nkosana Makate and giant telecommunications company Vodacom seems to be getting near-end slowly.

This follows the High Court judgement which has ruled that Makate, is entitled to 5% of the total voice revenue generated from the micro-text service from March 2001 to March 2021 which some say it could amount to billions and billions of rands.

Vodacom had initially offered Makate R 47million for his contribution/invention of the service, to which Makate declined and said the settlement is way too low in comparison to what the company made from the service.

He also said that CEO Joosub’s models only considered five years of compensation which he believes should be more.

Breathing a sigh of relief that the matter is finally moving closer to the goal posts, the court also ordered that Makate is entitled to 27% of the revenue generated by the return of calls sent through the Please Call Me platform.

Presiding over the matter, Judge Wendy Hughes ordered the CEO of Vodacom, Shameel Joosub, to finalise the determination within a month of this order.

It is said that Vodacom said they intend to appeal the matter.