The man behind the “Please Call Me” idea, Nkosana Makate, will have to wait a bit longer for that half-a-billion-dollar payday. Vodacom is finding ways to drag it out.
You might remember that back in February 2024, we covered how Makate was demanding over US$500 million from Vodacom, arguing he was owed a cut, about 5–7.5%, of the billions the company made off the free message service.
At one point, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) agreed with him, ordering Vodacom to pay somewhere between US$1.5 billion and US$3.5 billion.
Vodacom is a massive company, but that’s an amount even they would feel.
But now the South African Constitutional Court has added to the drama of this whole case.
A pause on the payout
On 31 July 2025, the court ruled in Vodacom’s favour, not because they don’t owe Makate anything, but because the SCA overstepped its legal authority by replacing the original compensation figure without a formal appeal from Makate.
The problem was that the court didn’t pin down the exact amount. It gave a range and left it at that. That ambiguity turned what should have been the end of the fight into just another round.
Makate, who’s sick of the whole thing, tried to make it happen by saying, “Fine, let’s go with the lower end of the range. Pay me the US$500 million I originally asked for, and we can all move on.”
Not in those exact words, but essentially. He said that the correct interpretation gave $500 million as the payout figure, and the SCA ordered that.
Vodacom didn’t bite. In fact, they ran straight to the Constitutional Court, arguing that the SCA shouldn’t have replaced the original High Court ruling since Makate hadn’t even appealed it formally. It was a technical argument, but it was effective.
What this means is that the SCA’s earlier ruling, with its $500 million payout, no longer stands. The matter is going back to the SCA to be handled by a different panel of judges. So, the clock resets again.
Vodacom, obviously, welcomed the ruling. It delays any huge payout and keeps the final amount up in the air for now.
As for Makate, it’s yet another frustrating twist in a legal battle that’s dragged on for over 15 years. Kids who were born when the case started are now O-Level students. That’s wild.
Makate conceived the “Please Call Me” idea back in 2000 while working at Vodacom and has been fighting for what he believes he’s owed ever since.
The lesson here is that having a good idea is one thing. Getting paid for it, especially when a massive company that can afford the best lawyers in town is involved, is a different beast.
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