Vodacom’s ‘’Please call me ‘’ inventor back in Court
Millions of money at stake as legal battle continues for Makate
The court case of Vodacom’s “Please Call Me” Nkosana Makate will on Tuesday return to the Pretoria High Court to face Vodacom over the offer of R47 million Vodacom made to him for coming up with the concept. Makete has since refused the offer claiming his concept is worth billions. He is now turning to the High Court to review Vodacom’s offer.
Vodacom claims it does not owe him more than the offered R47 million as “Please Call Me” is a free service that does not generate income leading up to this week’s review application, Makate last year successfully turned to the court for Vodacom to provide him with documents on which they based their decision to grant him R47m. He wanted to obtain some financial statements and copies of contracts the cellphone giant had concluded with other service providers to see what they had earned from his invention.
The legal battle between the former employee and Vodacom has been going on for more than a decade. Makate presented the idea to the service provider, however, the chief executive at the time, Alan Knott-Craig, claimed to be the inventor. The Constitutional Court in April 2016 declared Makate the inventor and ordered that Vodacom had to negotiate in good faith with Makate to determine reasonable compensation to him.
The court ordered that Vodacom’s chief executive determine the amount to be paid if parties failed to reach an agreement.
