---
title: "Vodacom Request to Appeal ‘Please Call Me’ Ruling Heads to Court"
description: "South Africa’s top court will hear an application from Vodacom Group Ltd. for leave to appeal a ruling that it pay a former employee billions of rands in compensation for an idea he proposed more than two decades ago."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-08-27-vodacom-request-to-appeal-please-call-me-ruling-heads-to-court/"
published: "2024-08-27T17:08:52"
updated: "2024-08-27T17:08:53"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 123
---

# Vodacom Request to Appeal ‘Please Call Me’ Ruling Heads to Court

> South Africa’s top court will hear an application from Vodacom Group Ltd. for leave to appeal a ruling that it pay a former employee billions of rands in compensation for an idea he proposed more than two decades ago.

Published 27 August 2024, 19:08 SAST · Updated 27 August 2024, 19:08 SAST

## Content

The Constitutional Court issued a directive that it will hear Vodacom’s application to challenge a ruling in the so-called “Please Call Me” matter that Kenneth Makate is entitled to compensation ranging between 29 billion rand ($1.64 billion) and 63 billion rand, the mobile operator said in a statement on Tuesday.

The case has gone back and forth for many years as Vodacom and Makate wrangle over compensation for the call-back service idea he proposed to the company’s product-development team when he worked in its finance division in the 2000s.

That amount determined by the Supreme Court of Appeal would have “devastating consequences” for the mobile-network operator, its employees and its investors, Johannesburg-based Vodacom said in papers filed in the Constitutional Court in February.