It never rains but it pours for telecommunication giant Vodacom, as new calculations on the amount due to Kenneth Nkosana Makete for his Please Call Me (PCM) invention are allegedly estimated at a minimum of R29 billion.
This is after Vodacom lost its appeal at the Supreme Court and was given a month to come up with a better offer than its initial R47 million.
The R47 million offer was tabled down by Vodacom back in 2019 after they were found to owe Nkosana for the invention that generated billions of rands for them.
Parts of the court judgement by the Supreme Court of Appeal concluded a few weeks ago read:
“The matter is remitted to the second respondent for him to determine the amount of reasonable compensation due to the applicant, in accordance with the four models in his determination of 9 January, solely on the basis that the second respondent would have awarded the applicant a contract for 18 + years, commencing on 1 March 2001 and terminating on 28 February 2019.
“The award made by the second respondent shall take into account the time value of money, calculated at an average inflation rate of 5%, from 1 March 2001 to 28 February 2019.”
The latest news on the matter as reported by media outlet MyBroadband, states that Vodacom will have to pay Nkosana between “R28.99 billion and R55.37 billion.”
This the media outlet arrived at after looking intensively at the court documents which they have seen with the clause that reads:
“…[T]he total revenue of the PCM product shall be that set out in Model 9A, 9B and 9BB submitted to the First Respondent by the Applicant (Annexure ‘NM30’– ‘NM32’ to the Supplementary Founding Affidavit).”
Taking these into calculation while also adding “Mora Interest, compound interest, and Special Interest” the media outlet got to a total of R194.8 billion generated by the telecom giant over 18 years.
Vodacom has, however, stated that they will take the matter to the Constitutional Court.
Also see: Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate wins appeal against Vodacom
