Vodacom Ordered To Pay ‘Please Call Me’ Inventor

Kenneth Nkosana Makate, the man who invented ‘Please Call Me’ back in 2000 won his eight year legal battle against his former employer Vodacom. Makate says he came up with the idea in 2000 and entered into a verbal contract with a Vodacom manager.

The Constitutional Court has ruled Vodacom acted wrongfully when it refused to compensate former employee Kenneth Nkosana Makate for the service. Justice Chris Jafta says the decision taken by Vodacom not to compensate Makate for his ‘please call me’ idea is unfortunate and unethical.

“Having admitted that it had used Mr Makate’s idea to develop the ‘please call me’ service, it was not ethical for Vodacom to refuse to compensate him”, Judge Jafta said.

The court found a verbal contract between Vodacom and Makate over his ‘please call me’ idea was binding and ordered Vodacom to engage with Makate to settle on an amount that he should be paid. The company was given a month to determine the ‘Please Call Me’ settlement.

Makate says he is still aiming for a 15 percent compensation but final negotiations will determine the amount paid out to him. “I am relieved and for me this is the end of the road, it’s not what I chose but it’s circumstances”, he said.

The victorious winner says he has no hard feeling for Vodacom, a company he joined when he was eighteen years old. “I joined the company at the age of 18, straight from school, so it formed the basis of my corporate upbringing and I love the company. I’ve said this over and over but we’ve had issues that we needed to deal with. It is unfortunate, but I don’t have any hard feelings at all.”