Who is Nkosana Makate: #PleaseCallMe Sue Vodacom R6.75 BILLION

Full Name : Nkosana Kenneth Makate Nhlapo

Current : South African Local Goverment Association
Previous : City of Joburg, Nedbank, Vodacom

Education :  Promat College

The Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of former Vodacom employee Nkosana Makate who came up with the Please Call Me concept.

Former Vodacom employee Nkosana Makate triumphed in his final attempt to claim credit for the Please Call Me concept. Makate has been locked in a battle with Vodacom for eight years. 

He said the executive for product development at the time, Philip Geissler, promised in an oral agreement to facilitate remuneration negotiations with the company.

#PLEASECALLME NKOSANA MAKATE I HAVE R6,75 BILLION FROM VODACOM

Experience

• Director Finance Control

  South African Local Goverment Association

  2013 – Present (3 years)

• Deputy Director Business Governance

  City of Joburg

  2006 – 2013 (7 years)

• Finance Manager/Officer

  Nedbank

  July 2003 – August 2006 (3 years 2 months)
  Responsible for the finances of Nedbank Private Banking Division and member if the Nedbank Private Banking EXCO. I was responsible for the preparation of budgets, submission of management accounts , building models for incentivizing Private Bankers. And also responsible for the finance control control reporting, participated in the strategy and planning for growing the business through exploring various options of increasing market share and responding to competition.

• SALGA

  Vodacom

  April 1995 – February 2006 (10 years 11 months)Pretoria Area, South Africa
  Joined Vodacom Pty(Ltd) in 1995 through a accounting training scholarship after completing Matric In 1994. Grew though the ranks at Vodacom, rising from being a Trainee to being given the responsibility of Finance Manager for the operational expenditure section. Gained exposure to all te finace functions within finance. I completed SAICA , CA(SA) Comercial Articles within as one of the first group Of Trainees when SAICA launched TOPP i.e. Training Outside Public Practice

Back in May 27, 2015

“All I wanted was for Vodacom and I to jointly make money from this invention on a percentage share basis like all other business deals concluded by the company on this basis… ‘Please Call Me’ has turned out to be one of the most successful inventions that Vodacom has ever had,” Makate was quoted in a Moneyweb report.

Makate wins the case, his lawyers say they will claim R10,5 billion from Vodacom in backdated liability from revenue generated by the Please Call Me service since 2000. Calculations based on actuarial estimations by his legal team puts the figure at around R70 billion. The claim represents 15% of the revenue received thus far and excludes interest.

According to the report his lawyers will argue that he was denied certain constitutional rights pertaining to access to courts and the right to property and that he was “deprived” of the invention and the right to claim money from it “even while Vodacom continues to benefit to the tune of many billions of rands”.

Makate was a trainee accountant for Vodacom in 2000 when he claims to have invented the ‘Please Call Me’ concept. He shared his idea with Philip Geissler, the then head of product development, who allegedly agreed to pay him a share of the profits generated from the product if it turned out to be technically and financially viable. Makate claims that then CEO of Vodacom Alan Knott-Craig later passed the idea off as his own.

While Makate successfully proved that a remuneration agreement between the two parties existed a High Court judge dismissed his claim on the grounds that Makate hadn’t proved that Geissler had “ostensible authority” to authorise such a binding agreement. The High Court also found that Makate had filed his claim against Vodacom after the legal prescription had expired. Civil claim applicants need to file a claim within three years of the incident, while Makate only made his initial court bid in 2008.