Vodacom and Nkosana Makate settle long-standing Please Call Me dispute out of court

Cellphone network provider, Vodacom has informed its shareholders that its ongoing litigation with Nkosana Makate over the Please Call Me feature has been settled out of court.

The out of court settlement comes after court cases that went on for almost two decades over the amount that Makate should be paid for the call feature.

Makate had argued that Vodacom owes him fair compensation for his idea, which came about in November 2000. Vodacom had continued to stand by its offer of R47 million, which it made to Makate and was determined by its CEO in 2016.

However, Makate had repeatedly rejected this offer and said Vodacom should compensate him as if he had an 18-year contract with them. In terms of his calculations, he argued that he should be compensated between R28 billion and R110 billion.

The matter had been set to be heard before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) again later this month.

This was after the Constitutional Court had found irregularities with the first SCA judgment handed down in February 2024 where it had ruled that Vodacom should pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of revenue generated over the past 18 years. Concourt had referred the matter back to the SCA for a new hearing by different judges.

In its notice in respect of the Please Call Me matter to shareholders, dated November 5, Vodacom said “shareholders are hereby advised that on 4 November 2025, the Vodacom Board approved a settlement agreement, and the matter was settled by the parties out of court. The parties are glad that finality has been reached in this regard.”

It added that a notice was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeal withdrawing its appeal and a notice was sent to the high court to abandon the 8 February 2022 judgment.

While no details of the settlement amount was given, Vodacom said the  settlement has been accounted for in the group’s interim results for the six month period ended 30 September 2025.

THE MERCURY