The largest South African mobile network service provider, Vodacom, is set to pay a former employee $1 billion (R20 billion) as compensation for inventing the Please Call Me service.
The Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the inventor Kenneth Makate of the popular service, Please Call Me, to receive between 5% – 7.5% of the total revenue generated by the service for 18 years, including interest from Vodacom as compensation.
The ruling declared $1 billion to be the appropriate figure for compensating the inventor of the largely known service in South Africa, which also stands as 10% of the company’s market capitalization.
As expected, Vodacom is disappointed and shocked by the court ruling. According to the company, a motion to apply for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court of South Africa is in place. Right now, this case stands as the longest-running legal battle in South Africa.
The Vodacom Vs Kenneth Makete Timeline
It all started in 2000 when Kenneth Makate was still at Vodacom. Makate pitched the idea of the Please Call Me service, which allowed customers to send a free “Please Call Me” text to the recipients. The launch took place in the following year, 2001.
At this time, Makete was promised compensation for his idea but as we can see, the compensation never came.
Fast forward 6 years later in 2007, when Makete had already left Vodacom for reason unknown, he submitted a letter to the company requesting his compensation as agreed upon, but he was again denied.
This resulted in a series of legal issues between the two parties, with the Constitutional Court having the last ruling. After, the Supreme Court of South Africa ruled in favor of the inventor of the service to be paid $1 billion.
The Constitutional Court ordered both parties to negotiate which price would be best for the settlement, but a conclusion is yet to be agreed upon.
According to Vodacom, $2.5 million (approx. R47 million) is the appropriate compensation for the invention of the Please Call Me service, but Kenneth Makete declined the offer, obviously wanting more.