It is not in dispute that Nkosana Makate is the inventor of Vodacom’s Please Call Me service. Vodacom, which benefited immensely from Makate’s invention, must pay him what is due. Continued attempts over the years to undermine this fact are possibly rooted in racism, that lingering ghost of apartheid.
Nigerian-British writer Ben Okri once said: “What is reality? Everybody’s reality is subjective; it’s conditioned by upbringing, ideas, temperament, religion, what’s happened to you.”
Okri’s words ring true when examining the attempts by some to erase Makate’s rightful place in history — efforts largely expressed by white journalists, perhaps influenced by old prejudices. They have consistently published stories attempting to discredit Makate’s claim to the Please Call Me service, despite overwhelming evidence, including a Constitutional Court ruling in 2016 that declared him the inventor.
Vodacom was ordered by the apex court to enter into good-faith negotiations to determine fair compensation for Makate’s invention. Yet, the debate was reignited when Ari Kahn, a former MTN contractor, claimed in a radio interview that Makate did not own the rights to the service and therefore was undeserving of compensation. Kahn argued that MTN had filed a similar patent before Vodacom launched the service in March 2001.
Some continue to resurrect Khan’s claims without presenting any new evidence. What’s critical, however, is that Khan’s assertions and the efforts to discredit Makate have overlooked key court rulings. The Constitutional Court had already addressed the differences between MTN and Vodacom’s versions of Please Call Me.
Makate’s service was built around a USSD messaging system that was simple, efficient, and designed specifically to benefit prepaid customers with no airtime — a market Vodacom directly targeted. In contrast, MTN’s offering was based on an interactive voice response (IVR) system, which was more complex, expensive, and lacked a clear market focus.
Makate’s idea, as the court noted, was not only innovative but patentable, and Vodacom benefited enormously from it. Moreover, the evidence of an American expert, Ivan Zatkovich, in Makate’s original trial further discredited Kahn’s claims. Zatkovich testified that the two systems were fundamentally different in their mechanics, business models and target markets.
Vodacom’s Please Call Me service, as conceived by Makate, was cheaper to implement and directly addressed a specific need in the market: allowing customers without airtime to initiate calls, thereby generating significant revenue for the company.
Even Vodacom’s defence in court did not contest the novelty of Makate’s idea. Instead, it relied on the false testimony of its former CEO, Alan Knott-Craig, who was found to have lied about inventing the service himself.
Despite this, Kahn and MTN have never legally challenged the court’s findings, which suggests that they recognise the fundamental differences between the two services. One has to wonder why they did not intervene as friends of the court if they truly believed Makate was not the inventor.
The bottom line is clear — Makate is the legitimate inventor of Please Call Me, which has been contested in our courts for 16 years and counting. His idea generated billions for Vodacom and its shareholders, and it’s time for him to be compensated fairly. He has spent his young life fighting for fair compensation and has still not received anything.
Those who continue to question his claim are not only disrespecting Makate, but also the judicial system that governs our country. We must honour the court’s decision and move forward, focusing on how much Vodacom owes him, not whether he is deserving.
As Okri reminds us: “We must take an interest in politics. We must become spies on behalf of justice.”
It is time to stop questioning Makate’s contribution and just give him his due.
• Lourie is founder and editor of TechFinancials.
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