The Please Call Me campaign says it has achieved its objective, despite getting a snub from Vodacom.
Protestors demonstrated outside Vodaworld on Thursday, demanding that the company pay Please Call Me inventor, Nkosana Makate, R70 billion or re-negotiate on the payments terms.
Vodacom management failed to meet up with protestors outside their gates.
Vodaworld was closed for the day and staff members either worked from home or did not pitch up to work.
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has told protestors the demonstration was a success and urged South Africans to continue boycotting Vodacom products, events and sponsorships.
The Please Call Me campaign has urged South Africans to continue boycotting Vodacom until they pay Please Call me inventor, Nkosana Makate, what he is rightfully owed.
Lesufi has been very vocal about the campaign and thanked supporters who had turned up in numbers outside Vodaworld, despite heavy police presence.
“The reality is if this matter goes back to court, South Africans will see that Vodacom is trying to settle with peanuts and if they have peanuts, they must give it to monkeys,” says Lesufi.
Lesufi says they will continue to call for more protests and are not threatened by Vodacom.
“I want to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts regardless of our political affiliations, organisations and any movement. What we are doing here is not for ourselves, but for the people of this country. What we are doing here we are sending a very strong message that it’s not about Makate. It’s about someone who thinks they can bully the country; who thinks they just steal an idea of a person and give it to other people outside the country,” says Lesufi.
Spokesperson of the campaign, Modise Setoaba, says they are yet to speak with Vodacom management whom they say are arrogant.
“We actually thought we were going to witness Vodacom and Makate signing a deal, but what we see is an arrogant Vodacom having taken SAPS to guard a private property while they have their own security inside there. We need justice; we need Makate to get paid what he deserves. We need corporate bullies to stop what they are doing to black investors and other investors out there,” says Setoaba.
Meanwhile, Vodacom have confirmed that it had shut down Vodaworld for the day as protests of Please Call Me continue to mount outside their premises. The company says it will play by the ear and see what happens on Thursday before they can officially respond.
The group says there was a constitutional ruling in which they have tried to abide to.
“Protestors have started arriving at campus in Midrand and at this stage what we have done is that the retails stores have been closed at Vodaworld and the Virgin active. Naturally, the safely and security of our staff that’s our paramount importance to Vodacom. There was a Constitutional Court that laid out a deliberate process. And we fully complied with the Constitutional Court order. We are playing it by ear and our absolute priority today is the safety and security of our staff,” says Byron Kennedy, Vodacom Spokesperson.
Consumers are unhappy about Vodacom’s handling of the ‘Please Call Me’ matter.
Vodacom is believed to have made billions of rand from Makate’s ‘Please Call Me’ concept. However, it alleges that an MTN contractor is the original inventor, not Makate.
The matter is yet to be settles after many years of wrangling back and forth.
