‘Please Call Me’ battle referred back to SCA
‘Please Call Me’ inventor Nkosana Makate and Vodacom’s legal battle over compensation has been referred back to the SCA, Business Day reports.
In a unanimous ruling read by outgoing acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga in his last sitting, the court signalled it was unhappy with certain aspects of a previous SCA ruling and found Vodacom had not been given a fair trial.
The SCA judgment set aside a R47m offer that Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub made to Makate six years ago, which Makate rejected.
The SCA ordered Vodacom to pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the total voice revenue generated by the service over 18 years from March 2001 to March 2021, plus interest.
The Constitutional Court granted Vodacom leave to appeal, and in what TechCentral describes as a scathing judgment, Madlanga ordered that the case be heard by a different panel of judges.
The court found the SCA failed in its ‘duty of proper consideration’ when reviewing the case.
Makate was ordered to pay Vodacom’s legal costs for the Constitutional Court case, including the cost of three senior counsel.
‘This court has agonised over Vodacom’s submissions about a court’s disregard of facts constituting a failure of justice,’ said Madlanga.
The court found the SCA failed in its duty by not granting Vodacom a fair trial. Madlanga said the appeals court failed to determine whether the finding made by Joosub that Makate should be awarded R47m was inequitable.
Madlanga also said the appeals court appeared not to have considered whether the alternative calculation model given by Makate, in which he claimed he should be awarded R9.6bn, was incorrect, even though there was evidence to suggest that it was.
Responding to the judgment, a Vodacom spokesperson said the company was ‘pleased that the Constitutional Court has upheld its appeal, with the case referred to a new panel of the SCA. Vodacom will now review the judgment in full and take appropriate next steps.’
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
