Eight justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa have dismissed UK mobile operator Vodafone’s leave to appeal as well as its poverty plea on the matter involving Vodacom and Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate.
“The Constitutional Court has considered the application for admission as ‘amicus curiae’. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as no case has been made out for admission as ‘amicus curiae’. The court has decided not to award costs,” the ruling reads.
Media reports have suggested that the latest ruling in favour of the former Vodafone employee on Friday means that the UK-based telecoms company, which owns over 60% of Vodacom, could not make a case to be admitted in the matter amicus curiae — a “friend of the court”.
The legal requirements to be admitted as friend of the court is on the basis that an individual or organisation must not be a party to the legal matter at hand and be able to assist the court by offering expertise, information or insight into the case.
The local telecommunications giant and Makate have been involved in this legal dispute for more than16 years now, which stems from the intellectual property and invention of the popular “Please Call Me” feature.
Early this year, Vodacom lodged an application with the Concourt for leave to appeal a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which had ruled in favour of Makate.
This is after the mobile operator suffered another loss in the legal battle, and was ordered by the SCA to determine new compensation for Makate, which should be between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue generated by the “Please Call Me” service, derived from prepaid or contract offerings from March 2001 to March 2021 (18 years), including interest.
In response to a Sunday newspaper’s request for comment, Makate called the court refusing Vodafone access a “massive victory” for him as the application was “technically tantamount to interference” in South Africa’s judicial process.
“Our argument was that, being a controlling shareholder, Vodafone could not be an amicus because it is a litigant in the matter through control of the Vodacom Group,” Makate said.
It has also been reported that Makate is entitled to 27% of the Please Call Me messages sent daily as being revenue generated by the return calls.
In February, the mobile operator in a shareholder’s update published in August 2023, Vodacom said: “Vodacom South Africa confirms that on 26 August 2024, the Constitutional Court of South Africa issued a directive that it will hear Vodacom South Africa's application for leave to appeal in the PCM (Please Call Me) matter, in tandem with its appeal against the SCA judgment.”
The Star