The fight is not yet over for ‘Please Call Me’ inventor Nkosana Makate, who has been waiting for two decades to receive adequate compensation for his invention.
The legal battle will now be heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal next year.
Vodacom is appealing against the judgement delivered by the Gauteng High Court. In February, the court ordered CEO Shameel Joosub to go back to the drawing board to calculate exactly what Makate should get for his invention.
Judge Wendy Hughes made it clear that the calculations used by Joosub in offering Makate R47 million for what she called a brilliant invention, was far too conservative.
But Vodacom will not budge and has turned to the Supreme Court.
Both parties have now filed their legal arguments with the Supreme Court and are awaiting a date for the matter to be heard, reports the Pretoria News.
Makate said his compensation should be between R28 billion and R110bn.
Vodacom will argue that the court erred in remitting the issue back to the company to recalculate what is owed to Makate.
Advocate Wim Trengove SC will also argue that Judge Hughes was wrong in adding directions in her judgement to Vodacom which the cellphone giant should follow in coming up with a new amount.
In 2016, the Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom to reach a fair and reasonable settlement with Makate. According to Vodacom, this was done.
It will be argued that Makate’s calculations as to what his invention is worth and the revenue it had generated for Vodacom are “grossly exaggerated”.
Makate’s legal team, however, will argue that accounting experts have demonstrated that R47m was nowhere near the agreed 5% of the revenue generated by the invention.