Zuko Komisa

Vodacom ordered to pay Kenneth Makate 5% – 7.5% of “Please Call Me” revenue of 18 years plus interest.
The creator of the Please Call Me concept, Kenneth Nkosana Makate, has won his case at the South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which denied Vodacom’s appeal.
Makate was a trainee accountant for Vodacom. He had a brilliant idea in 2000: a cellphone user without airtime could request a call from another user who had airtime by sending a message. Vodacom developed the Please Call Me product based on this concept. It proved to be an overwhelming success.
The conflict between Makate and Vodacom began in 2007 when he sent out demand letters, claiming he was promised payment for creating the Please Call Me invention.

Vodacom, however, declined to compensate Makate in any way for his concept. There was protracted legal action after filing a high court lawsuit against Vodacom in 2008.
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Vodacom was ordered to pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue, plus interest, that its Please Call Me product generated over eighteen years.
According to the ruling’s wording, the 18-year period ran from March 2001 to January 9, 2019 — the day Vodacom first offered to pay Makate R47 million for his idea.
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