The Vodacom Building in Century City. Photographer: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers.
The saga in the Vodacom ‘Please Call Me’ case has taken yet another turn after the telecommunications giant said it would be appealing the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA) ruling mandating it to pay Kenneth Makate, a former employee, R20 billion.
“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.
This comes after the SCA dismissed an appeal made by Vodacom and ruled in favour of Nkosana Makate.
“This Court found that the aforementioned must be considered in the context of the duration of the agreement between Makate and the applicant,” the SCA said.
“This Court emphasised that it would have been an eminently un-businesslike and an unreasonable decision by the CEO not to have extended the contract it made with Makate. As such, this Court determined that the valuation was flawed and inequitable,” the SCA further stated.
Initially, Vodacom offered Makate a payout of R47 million, however, his legal team rejected this offer.
After various court battles, the case ended up at the SCA and yesterday, it ordered that Vodacom, must use the models Makate’s team submitted to calculate the monies owed.
With this model, Makate’s legal team calculated that based on a 5% share of an estimated R205 billion in revenue over 18 years equates to R20 billion in compensation.
BUSINESS REPORT