Vodacom Scores Legal Victory in Longstanding “Please Call Me” Battle Against Makate By Noko Mabofa Maleka

Vodacom Scores Legal Victory in Longstanding “Please Call Me” Battle Against Makate

By Noko Mabofa Maleka | Insight Jozi News – 1 August 2025

In a dramatic turn of events, South Africa’s highest court has delivered a stinging rebuke to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and offered telecommunications giant Vodacom a crucial procedural win in its long-running legal dispute with Kenneth Nkosana Makate — the man widely credited with inventing the iconic "Please Call Me" service.

On 31 July 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled that the SCA must rehear the case with a different panel of judges, stating that the appellate court failed in its "duty of proper consideration" by accepting Makate’s revenue models without scrutiny and ignoring key evidence presented by Vodacom.

The judgment, authored by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga — who officially retired the same day — sends the landmark case back into legal limbo nearly two decades after the initial idea was born and nine years after the apex court first intervened in Makate’s favour.

A Legal Odyssey: Makate’s Battle for Recognition and Compensation

Kenneth Makate, a former trainee accountant at Vodacom, submitted a proposal in November 2000 for a service that would allow users without airtime to send a free missed call — essentially a plea for a callback. This became the foundation of the wildly successful "Please Call Me" service, launched by Vodacom in March 2001.

Though the Constitutional Court affirmed in 2016 that a binding verbal agreement existed between Makate and Vodacom, and ordered the company to negotiate fair compensation in good faith — designating the CEO as the deadlock-breaker — the parties failed to reach a consensus.

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub eventually offered Makate R47 million, a figure Makate publicly rejected as “shocking” and “an insult,” insisting he was owed much more — up to R126 billion.

The Billion-Rand Dispute Over Numbers

Makate’s legal team successfully argued in the High Court and later at the SCA that he should receive between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue generated by the Please Call Me service over 18 years, with interest.

This would amount to:

R9.7 billion at a 5% share before interest
R29 billion with interest at the same rate
R63 billion if calculated at 7.5% with interest

However, Vodacom challenged the enforceability of the SCA’s order, arguing it was ambiguous and based on flawed calculations. In its submission to the Constitutional Court, Vodacom claimed Makate was attempting to selectively abandon inconvenient parts of the SCA’s judgment to render the order enforceable — essentially rewriting the ruling to suit his claim.

“Mr. Makate does not abandon the SCA’s orders in their entirety nor any particular one of its orders,” Vodacom argued. “What he attempts to do instead is to rewrite the SCA majority’s order by ‘abandoning’ select words within an order in the hope that it reads more sensibly.”

The Constitutional Court agreed that the SCA erred in accepting Makate’s figures without scrutiny and that the case deserved a fresh hearing before a reconstituted SCA panel.

The Human Cost of Justice Deferred

For Makate, who has waged this legal war since 2008, the ruling represents another delay in receiving compensation for what many believe was a revolutionary idea that reshaped mobile communication in South Africa.

Despite this setback, the Constitutional Court’s judgment does not end his legal claim — it merely hits the reset button, potentially forcing a third round of litigation in a battle already spanning 17 years.

The ruling also reignites broader national conversations around intellectual property, fair compensation, and corporate accountability in post-apartheid South Africa. How does a country committed to transformation and justice balance the interests of innovation with the power of large corporations?

Final Thoughts

As Acting Deputy Chief Justice Madlanga bows out of public service with a legal bombshell, his final judgment underscores a deeply uncomfortable truth — even South Africa’s highest courts can fail in the execution of justice. It also highlights the importance of judicial integrity and careful adjudication in matters involving billions of rands and the livelihoods of ordinary South Africans.

Whether Kenneth Makate will eventually receive a payout commensurate with the value his idea generated remains uncertain. But one thing is clear: the struggle for justice in the “Please Call Me” saga is far from over.

Follow Insight Jozi News for updates as this story continues to unfold.
📲 WhatsApp Channel: Insight Jozi News
📍 Johannesburg | ✍🏽 Reporting by Noko Mabofa Maleka
💻 www.insightjozinews.blogspot.com

Would you like a version for Opera News, a graphic poster with "Breaking News", or SEO metadata for this article?