'Please Call Me' idea man's R20b request not equitable, says expert

MyBroadband is South Africa's leading technology news website.

Vermeulen says while Makate might have come up with the idea, he did not invent or implement it. 

The Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled that Vodacom must pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue its Please Call Me product generated over 18 years, plus interest.

The telecommunications giant had first offered to compensate Makate R47 million for his idea. 

"I would argue that he is not even entitled to the R47 million that Vodacom has originally offered him," said Vermeulen. 

"If you look at other technological inventions, let's take Samsung or Apple as an example if someone initiates the idea of waterproofing cell phones. 

"Does the person who just said this idea out loud become a billionaire just because they said the idea out loud versus the engineers who sweat and bled for months to put that idea into practice? 

"While the person who came up with the idea might be entitled to some sort of compensation, in my opinion, that person should not earn more than everybody else in the team who helped put the idea into practice.”

Vodacom has since threatened to approach the Constitutional Court in a bid to challenge the SCA's ruling that it has to determine new compensation for Makate.

"Vodacom is surprised and disappointed with the judgment and will bring an application for leave to appeal before the Constitutional Court of South Africa within the prescribed period," Vodacom said in a statement on Wednesday morning.” 

Vermeulen says Vodacom botched this court case on multiple levels.

"The first mistake Vodacom did was not bringing the fact that Nkosana was not an inventor, just an idea man. Vodacom was so scared of admitting that it did not invent 'call me'. It looks like Vodacom wanted to keep credit for inventing 'Please Call Me' while discrediting Nkosana Makate, but it could not have it both ways.”

According to MyBroadband, Vodacom admitted that Please Call Me was invented and subsequently patented by MTN and Ari Kahn before Makate came up with the idea in 2019.

Kahn told MyBroadband that Makate’s proposal was different from the Please Call Me service which Vodacom implemented.

He explained that Makate proposed “Buzz” – a service which allowed a user without airtime to dial a phone number and give a “missed call”.

Vermeulen says the telecommunications company should have never entertained the multimillion-dollar compensation package from the get-go because it's absurd. 

"What Vodacom should have done in the beginning was to say Makate could not have invented the system because MTN had done so already. Case closed". 

Vermeulen says if Vodacom ends up giving Makate R20 billion, then he might be responsible for Vodacom having to hike prices by 300% for customers to be able to make up for the shortfall. 

"The whole Vodacom group, that includes operations in Egypt, Kenya and various other markets only made R18 billion profit in 2023. 

"So what we are talking about here is giving an idea man more than Vodacom's annual profits in 2023, that is absurd and obviously impossible. 

"So, while one roots for Makate, one has to keep this picture in mind, too.” 

The SCA has ordered Vodacom's CEO, Shameel Joosub, to finalise the new offer within one month of the order.