{"id":126921,"date":"2016-06-14T18:22:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T16:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=126921"},"modified":"2016-06-14T18:22:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T16:22:00","slug":"bun-fight-over-please-call-me-inventors-payout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/126921\/bun-fight-over-please-call-me-inventors-payout\/","title":{"rendered":"Bun fight over \u2018Please Call Me\u2019 inventor&#8217;s payout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The inventor of Vodacom\u2019s &#8216;Please Call Me&#8217; service has cancelled an\u00a0agreement with a group which funded his legal battle against the mobile operator, according to a report by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bdlive.co.za\/business\/technology\/2016\/06\/14\/please-call-me-inventor-is-trying-to-get-out-of-paying-legal-fees-backer-says\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>BDLive<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Christiaan Schoeman, one of Nkosana Makate\u2019s financial backers, made the claim after the High Court in Pretoria ruled that 50% of Makate\u2019s payout be kept in a trust of his attorneys\u2019 account.<\/p>\n<p>Schoeman filed an application to interdict Makate\u2019s lawyers from representing him in <a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/163865-vodacom-to-start-discussions-with-please-call-me-inventor.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>payout negotiations with Vodacom<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that were ordered by the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom to hold negotiations with\u00a0Makate following an eight-year legal battle over the claim that he invented the company\u2019s Please Call Me service.<\/p>\n<p>Schoeman said his company, Raining Men,\u00a0paid Makate\u2019s legal fees when he took Vodacom\u00a0to court.<\/p>\n<p>Makate\u00a0said\u00a0Schoeman only paid R2.4 million for his legal fees, and\u00a0agreed to a reduced 53% cut of any settlement from Vodacom \u2013 but Schoeman did not deliver on his promises.<\/p>\n<p>Makate\u00a0said he cancelled his\u00a0agreement with Schoeman in January 2015.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Makate\u2019s legal fees were funded by myself and other funders. He then cancelled the agreement so he could take it all for himself,\u201d said\u00a0Schoeman.<\/p>\n<p>This follows\u00a0Sterling Rand, which also assisted\u00a0Makate financially, asking Vodacom to \u201cwithhold at least 50% of any settlement\u201d, as it was concerned Makate and his lawyers,\u00a0Stemela &amp; Lubbe, would agree to a <a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/166420-vodacom-dont-pay-the-please-call-me-inventor-sterling-rand.html\"><strong>deal that excludes it<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on Please Call Me<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/124889\/vodacom-asked-to-withhold-please-call-me-payment\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Vodacom asked to withhold Please Call Me payment<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to How much money \u2018Please Call Me\u2019 inventor wants from Vodacom\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/122239\/how-much-money-please-call-me-inventor-wants-from-vodacom\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">How much money \u2018Please Call Me\u2019 inventor wants from Vodacom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Vodacom reports profit and customer growth\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/123661\/vodacom-reports-profit-and-customer-growth\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Vodacom reports profit and customer growth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The inventor of Vodacom\u2019s Please Call Me service has cancelled an agreement with a group which funded his legal battle against the mobile operator, according to a report by BDLive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":97427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[25,27],"class_list":["post-126921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-active","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126921"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126929,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126921\/revisions\/126929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}