Vodacom-Makate Please Call Me battle far from over

South Africa’s top court upheld Vodacom’s appeal against another court’s ruling that it pay a former employee billions of rands in compensation for an idea to develop a popular call-back service that he proposed more than two decades ago.

The Constitutional Court ordered that a differently constituted panel of the Supreme Court of Appeal hears the case again, Judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga said Thursday.

The SCA in early 2024 ruled Kenneth Makate is entitled to compensation, which was estimated to range between R29 billion and R63 billion. 

The ‘Please Call Me’ service allows customers with a zero balance on their mobile phones to contact someone free of charge with the text-message message. 

Makate has sought financial compensation and credit for his idea for the past 17 years through the courts and talks with the company. 

Makate took the idea to Vodacom’s product-development team while he was working in the finance division in the early 2000s.

Alan Knott-Craig, who was the chief executive officer at that time, had to determine reasonable compensation for the idea, which didn’t happen then. 

In papers filed to the Constitutional Court, Makate said he sought R9.7 billion in compensation. About 140,000 customers made use of the service on its first day in operation, the filings previously stated.