'Please Call Me' creator braces for another legal showdown

“PLEASE CALL ME’ (PCM) inventor Nkosana Makate has pinned his hopes on the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to bring his more than two decades battle with Vodacom to finality when the matter is heard next month.

- ZELDA VENTER

The fresh November 18 SCA case comes nearly 25 years to the day since PCM was invented on November 21, 2000. In February 2024 the SCA ruled Vodacom should pay Makate between 5% and 7.5% of revenue generated over the past 18 years. Vodacom appealed this decision to the ConCourt.

The ConCourt referred the matter back to the SCA for a new hearing by different judges. It ruled that the SCA had made a number of legal errors and exceeded its jurisdiction.

He goes into that next chapter of his battle faced with a collective legal bill of nearly R13 million for one day's arguments in the Constitutional Court, which was not even brought to the apex court by himself.

While he accepts the verdict of the Constitutional Court issued earlier this year that the matter must return to the SCA, Makate questions why he was slapped with a costs order.