Vodacom calls on Makate's creditors to 'please leave me out of your legal snafu'

Black Rock Mining wants all payments to inventor stopped

- By Ngwako Malatji

Nkosana Makate may have to wait even longer before receiving payment for his invention

Giant connectivity and digital service entity Vodacom has made a call to a mining company suing “Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate to please leave it out of their messy civil lawsuit.

The entity Black Rock Mining (BRM) has launched an urgent application for a court order to interdict Vodacom from paying Makate hundreds of millions in settlement for their 18-year-old intellectual property dispute over the “Please Call Me” cellphone service he invented whilst working for the company.

The incorporation’s former director, Errol Elsdon, wants Vodacom to rather pay 40% of the funds into the account of Makate’s lawyers, Stemela and Lubbe Attorneys, until the matter is finalised in a court of law.

Makate is cited by BRM as the first respondent, while his lawyers, Stemela & Lubbe Attorneys, and Vodacom are cited as the second and third respondents, respectively.

While Makate and Lubbe Attorneys are sharpening their knives for a titanic courtroom mano-a-mano with BRM, Vodacom has asked to be disconnected from the “duels”. Vodacom nailed its colours to the mast in a letter by its lawyers, Leslie Cohen & Associates, addressed to BRM‘s lawyers, SN Mnguni Attorneys, on November 10.