{"id":842147,"date":"2025-11-06T09:08:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=842147"},"modified":"2025-11-06T09:11:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:11:31","slug":"this-is-how-much-vodacom-will-pay-makate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/842147\/this-is-how-much-vodacom-will-pay-makate\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how much Vodacom will pay Makate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Please Call Me Case involving Kenneth Makate and Vodacom has come to an end, with Makate set to earn up to R750 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vodacom revealed in an announcement to the market late last night, 05 November, that the two parties had reached an agreement out of court.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe parties are glad that finality has been reached in this regard,\u201d Vodacom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As per the settlement process, a notice was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeal withdrawing Vodacom\u2019s appeal. A notice was also sent to the High Court to abandon the 8 February 2022 judgment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Please Call Me battle has lasted for two decades, with Makate claiming to have invented the service. He initially claimed that he should be compensated for the idea for close to R10 billion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Makate claims that he conceived the idea for a free missed-call service that would enable customers to capture their contacts\u2019 attention without incurring airtime costs, but this assertion is highly contested.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After sharing the idea with his superior at Vodacom in 2001, he said he was promised compensation. After not receiving the payment, he launched a legal battle against Vodacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case reached the Constitutional Court, where it ordered Vodacom to pay Makate fairly for his idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vodacom increased its compensation offer from R10 million to R47 million, which Makate rejected, prompting a return to the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the second round of legal battles, the matter again reached the Constitutional Court, but was sent back to the SCA over extreme issues in the case.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was the final part of the legal battle, with the parties now reaching a settlement, which Vodacom said would be included in its interim results for the six-month period ended September 30, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How much it work out to<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-793390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Vodacom-7.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>While the exact figures are yet to be released, Vodacom has issued a revised trading statement that recognises a &#8220;one-off cost impacting FY1H26.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vodacom\u2019s initial trading statement indicated that earnings per share would increase by between 40% and 45% to a range of R4.94 to R5.12.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, its latest trading statement now sees earnings per share increase by between 30% to 40% to a range between R4.60 and R4.96.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When using the extra shares, Vodacom\u2019s high-end difference between the two trading statements sits around R353 million, while the low-end sits at R748 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final details will be included in Vodacom\u2019s interim results, which are due next week, Tuesday, 10 November 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th colspan=\"2\">Estimated Please Call Me settlement<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>EPS old expectation<\/td><td>496 to 513 cents<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>EPS new expectation<\/td><td>460 to 496 cents<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Difference between bottom ends of earnings range<\/td><td>36 cents<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Difference between top ends of earnings range<\/td><td>17 cents<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Vodacom\u2019s issued shares<\/td><td>2,077,841,204<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Estimated earnings impact<\/td><td>R353 million to R748 million<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kenneth Makate is set to earn hundreds of millions after reaching an out-of-court settlement with Vodacom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":833607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24009,6442,27],"class_list":["post-842147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-makate","tag-please-call-me","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842147","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842147"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842175,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842147\/revisions\/842175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}