Supreme Court says Please Call Me idea-man should be paid up to R63 billion

The Supreme Court of Appeal ruling in favour of Kenneth Nkosana Makate effectively ordered Vodacom to pay him between R29 billion and R63 billion.Vodacom approached the Supreme Court after failing to convince the High Court that its R47-million compensation offer to Makate was fair.

Makate had proposed a system to ring someone’s phone without airtime, sending them a missed call to indicate that you want them to call back. The Constitutional Court ruling honoured this original agreement, ordering the parties to negotiate in good faith and for Joosub to act as deadlock-breaker.During their negotiations after the ConCourt’s ruling, Vodacom offered R10 million and Makate’s team demanded R20 billion.

To put those numbers in perspective, we’re talking about 15% of Vodacom’s R195-billion market cap at the lower end. At the higher end of the range, the payment would amount to nearly a third of the whole company.Vodacom invests between R10 billion and R11 billion into its South African network every year.

Makate would not get to keep the full amount, as his funders are getting at least 50%, and the taxman likely wants his pound of flesh too.

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