VodacomSouth Africa’s biggest mobile network operator by customer base, will appeal a Supreme Court of Appeal judgment mandating it to pay Kenneth Makate, a previous worker, R20 billion (~$1 billion) for developing the popular Please Call Me service. The judgment quantity is 10% of Vodacom’s market capitalisation.
The Supreme Court of Appeal judgment purchased Vodacom to pay Kenneth Makate in between 5% and 7.5% of the overall income produced by the Please Call Me service over 18 years plus interest.
“Vodacom marvels and dissatisfied with the judgment and will bring an application for leave to appeal before the Constitutional Court of South Africa, within the proposed duration,” the business stated in a declaration to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange today.
Vodacom declared just R47 million (~$2.5 million) was because of Makate for creating the Please Call Me service. The service enables users to send out a text free of charge, asking for receivers to call them.
Makate pitched the concept for the service to Vodacom in 2000 while he was still a worker and was assured settlement. The service was released in 2001.
In 2007, a couple of years after leaving Vodacom, Makate sent a letter to Vodacom asking for settlement. Legal tussles ultimately saw the case gave the Constitutional Court, which bought the 2 celebrations to work out a settlement in great faith. Makate declined Vodacom’s preliminary deal of R47 million.
With Vodacom planning to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal’s judgment, the case, currently among the longest-running lawsuit in South Africa‘s legal history, will drag out. Vodacom did not define a particular date for its appeal.