Please Call Me inventor triumphs over Vodacom

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday ordered corporate giant Vodacom to pay their former trainee accountant Nkosana Makate for coming up with the concept for their Please Call Me service.

Makate laid a claim in 2015 for millions of rands from Vodacom for the service that the company introduced in 2001 to wild success, which allows cellphone users to send a free message to another user requesting that they be called back, Times Live reported.

The former employee had to make a strong case to the court that Phillip Geissler, then Vodacom’s director of product development, had apparent authority to enter into an agreement with him on behalf of the company, according to the website.

In his ruling ending an 8-year long battle between Makate and Vodacom, Justice Chris Jafta Vodacom’s conduct was unethical and left “a bad taste in the mouth”.

The Please Call Me service is believed to have made billions of rands for the Vodacom.