“Please Call Me” inventor's payday delayed
Plus: How Canal+ and MultiChoice sweetened the deal and SARB cuts rate
Tech Aways gives you key tech aways (take aways, get it? sorry) from the week’s top tech and startup stories.
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Vodacom & Makate headed back to Supreme Court
Since 2008, Vodacom and Nkosana Makate, a former employee of the telco giant who claims to have invented the popular “Please Call Me” service, have been involved in a protracted court battle.
Here is a timeline of events:
2000: Makate is a trainee accountant at Vodacom and pitches an idea of a service which would allow users with no airtime to “buzz” another user, alerting them to “call back.” Makate is verbally promised compensation for the idea.
2006: Six years later, Makate resigns from Vodacom, still without compensation or recognition for his idea, which was launched in 2001 and became widely popular.
2008: After sending numerous letters to Vodacom regarding the compensation, Makate takes the matter to court, which would be the beginning of an almost two-decade-long court battle.
2016: Makate scores a huge victory in South Africa’s Constitutional Court, which recognises him as the inventor of “Please Call Me”. The court orders Vodacom to negotiate with Makate to reach a reasonable compensation.
2019: From the negotiations, Vodacom offers Makate R47 million, which he flatly refuses, labelling it an “insult”.
2024: As a result of the deadlock in determining Makate’s compensation, the case heads to the Supreme Court of Appeal. There, Vodacom is ordered to pay Makate 5% to 7.5% of the total revenue generated from “Please Call Me” since its 2001 launch, plus interest.
The actual figure for the compensation sits anywhere between R29 billion and R186 billion. Vodacom says “nope” and appeals the case back to the Constitutional Court.
2025: The Constitutional Court rules in favour of Vodacom, saying that it was unhappy with numerous elements of the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling. It orders the case back to the Supreme Court, where it will be presided over by a different set of judges.
🍔 Tech Away: With this ruling by the Constitutional Court, it means that the Vodacom vs Makate is now guaranteed to drag on for a least another three years or so. It is one of the most intriguing cases of technology intellectual property rights in the world, and worth watching where this next chapter is headed.
👓 More resources: The Constitutional Court ruling
Canal+ & MultiChoice get their way, but…
In The Godfather II, Don Fanucci tells Vito Corleone that for him to continue doing criminal activities without any disturbances from the police or Fanucci himself, he has to “wet his beak” by giving him some tribute from their ill-got earnings.
Last week, South Africa’s Competition Tribunal approved Canal+ and MultiChoice’s long-awaited merger, but with nine conditions which are the Tribunal’s version of “wet my beak”.
They are as follows:
Canal+ and MultiChoice commit to not retrench any employees in South Africa for three years from the merger date.
The LicenceCo, which will hold MultiChoice’s broadcasting license and provide broadcasting services, will hold its shareholding, economic, and voting interests to benefit Historically Disadvantaged Peoples (HDPs) and workers.
Both MultiChoice Group and LicenceCo will remain incorporated and headquartered in South Africa, and Canal+ will undertake a secondary inward listing on the JSE within nine months of the merger or the delisting of MultiChoice Group.
The merged entity and LicenceCo will spend unspecified amounts on acquiring, commissioning and producing local content and procure from South African SMMEs and HDP entities.
The merged entity and LicenceCo will invest a certain amount in CSI initiatives in South Africa, such as MultiChoice Talent Factory and DStv Diski Challenge.
The merged entity will identify opportunities to increase the availability of locally produced South African general entertainment content in territories where MultiChoice Group’s retail audio-visual services were not previously available.
Canal+ will roll out aspects of the Canal+ University Programme in South Africa and identify and implement appropriate training programmes for rollout. The entities will report annually to the Commission on the progress of the initiatives.
LicenceCo will agree to conclude a new agreement, no less favourable than the current deal, with the SABC in respect of the SABC News channel for an additional five years from the date of expiry of the current SABC LicenceCo Agreement.
If the merged entity acquires rights to an international sporting event in which South African national teams take part, it shall make available the rights to the event to free-to-air national broadcasters on reasonable commercial terms.
🍔 Tech Away: Unlike Don Fanucci, whose demands to Vito were a self-serving extortionary move, the Tribunal’s asks are reasonable.
The Canal+ & MultiChoice merger is one of the biggest broadcasting transactions ever on the continent, and it is only fair that South Africans benefit significantly from it.
👓 More resources: Competition Tribunal ruling, timeline of Canal+ and MultiChoice’s flirtations
SARB goes “snip, snip, snip” on repo rate
As expected, the South African Reserve Bank has cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7%. Consequently, the prime lending rate for commercial banks decreased to 10.50%, making borrowing cheaper for South Africans.
As South Africa preps to be hit with tariffs by the US, economic growth is expected to be sluggish for the rest of 2025, with Q1 2025 having recorded growth of only 0.1%.
On inflation, SARB expects it to average 3.3% for the rest of the year, but the Monetary Policy Committee aims for it to reach the lower range target of 3%.
🍔Tech Away: SARB’s rate decision is directly tied to the availability of venture capital in the South African startup ecosystem, to some extent.
If rates are high, borrowing becomes expensive, and investors tend to park their capital in less risky asset classes such as bonds and gold. However, if rates are lower, investors tend to have a risk appetite towards riskier asset classes such as venture capital and equities.
Additionally, most funds and startups in South Africa tend to raise capital within the country, and the rate movement is a big deal in this regard.
👓More resources: How interest rates impact VC, SARB’s monetary policy