The inventor of the ‘Please Call Me’ cellphone service Nkosana Makate says the order by the High Court in Pretoria that he deserves greater compensation from Vodacom is correct and entirely appropriate.
The High Court ordered that Makate is entitled to five percent of the revenue generated by the return of calls, sent through the ‘Please Call Me’ (PCM) platform.
Vodacom wants this decision reversed. In responding to court papers before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein, Makate says Vodacom has failed to make any case on appeal.
He wants the SCA to dismiss Vodacom’s case with costs, including the costs of the two counsels.
In his heads of argument before the SCA, Makate insists that he was shortchanged and that the model used by the CEO of Vodacom to determine his payout is flawed.
He submits that his invention ensured that customers stayed with the network provider and prevented Vodacom customers without airtime from being locked out of their numbers after a few months, because they could not send PCMs.
He says Vodacom earned billions of rands from his invention.
In February this year, the High Court ruled that Makate was entitled to five percent of the total voice revenue generated from the micro-text service from March 2001 to March 2021. Vodacom offered him R47 million. Makate rejected the offer, saying he is entitled to between R28 and R110 billion and 15 percent of the revenue.
