{"id":800044,"date":"2024-11-17T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=800044"},"modified":"2024-11-17T07:06:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T05:06:57","slug":"d-day-for-vodacom-please-call-me-battle-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/800044\/d-day-for-vodacom-please-call-me-battle-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"D-day for Vodacom Please Call Me battle this week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Constitutional Court will hear the final bid to resolve the decades-long battle over the Vodacom Please Call Me idea this week, with idea-man Kenneth Makate set to present his side before the apex on Thursday, 21 November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents that culmination of an almost 20 year-long legal battle with Vodacom over fair compensation for the idea, which Makate presented to the group back in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the Sunday Times<\/strong><\/a>, Makate said that this week presents the be-all and end-all of the saga, with the Constitutional Court either granting Vodacom leave to appeal and eventually delivering a final ruling, or it will dismiss its application and give clarity on how its original ruling should be delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom is looking to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling which would force it to pay Makate billions for the Please Call Me idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate had an idea for a free missed-call service that he shared with his superior at Vodacom in 2001. The service aimed to allow customers to get their contacts\u2019 attention without using airtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported<\/a> by Daily Investor, Vodacom launched the service, known as Please Call Me, in March 2001, and it became widely used across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate then launched a lengthy legal battle against Vodacom in 2008, seeking compensation for his idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vodacom newsletter identifying Makate as the originator of the Please Call Me idea. Source: MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Makate\u2019s legal team had initially demanded R20 billion to compensate him for his idea, based on a calculation that the Please Call Me product had generated R205 billion in revenue since its implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom did not share Makate\u2019s views on how much revenue the service generated or how much he deserved. The courts, however, sided with Makate on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being ordered to fairly compensate Makate for his idea, Vodacom initially offered him R10 million. Makate rejected this offer, and Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub\u2019s team then constructed four models to estimate how much Makate should get based on different scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After averaging the two models with the highest values, he came up with an offer of R47 million. However, Makate rejected this as well, and the matter again ended up in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate approached the High Court, and in February 2024, the court ruled in his favour. Vodacom appealed this ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Supreme Court dismissed Vodacom\u2019s appeal and ordered the company to compensate Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the revenue generated by the service over 18 years<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to MyBroadband\u2019s analysis, this ranges from R28.99 billion to R55.37 billion using the models accepted by the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom noted in March<\/strong><\/a> that it was on the hook for between R40 billion and R63 billion, based on this order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a twist in June\u2014where Makate\u2019s legal team opposed Vodacom\u2019s majority shareholder, Vodafone, from joining proceedings\u2014revealed that he was \u2018only\u2019 seeking the compensation claimed in 2020, which was R9.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said his claim from 2020 still stands \u2013 R9.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom has long argued that it is impossible to know how much revenue has been accrued due to the service, and the SCA had just accepted Makate’s team’s modelling and calculations as fact, disregarding the mobile operator’s contestatations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makate told the Sunday Times that he is confident heading to court this week, and is looking forward for the entire saga to be done with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Vodacom\u2019s latest Please Call Me warning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Constitutional Court will hear the final bid to resolve the decades-long battle over the Vodacom Please Call Me idea this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":751822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-800044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800044","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800047,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800044\/revisions\/800047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}