Makate continues to pursue a battle for compensation from Vodacom.
As Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate continues to pursue a battle for compensation, a tech expert has questioned if the inventor had ever patented the call-back service.
Makate, a former trainee accountant at Vodacom, was dealt a blow last week after the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruled in favour of Vodacom, sending the legal battle with the Please Call Me inventor back to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Judgment
The judgment, delivered on Thursday, related to Vodacom’s application for leave to appeal against a February 2024 SCA ruling.
The appeal, heard by the ConCourt last November, challenged the SCA’s decision to overturn Vodacom’s offer of R47 million in compensation to Makate, who developed the Please Call Me service that allows network users to send free callback messages.
Where is the patent?
However, Stuff Magazine editor Toby Shapshak said if Makate created ‘Please Call Me’, where is his patent?
WATCH: Toby Shapshack’s thoughts on the case
[WATCH] Stuff Magazine editor Toby Shapshak says one question he's been asking is if Nkosana Makate created 'Please Call Me', where is his patent?#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/nWdQgDbAXu
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) July 31, 2025
“I’ve been writing about this for years and years, and the central question I have is, if Mr. Makate invented Please Call Me, where is his patent, because that’s how this works in the world.
“If you invent something, you go to patent lawyers. Patent lawyers take it to the patent authority, which sees if anything else of this nature has been patented before or invented before, and they give you a patent.”
Shapshak said that Please Call Me was invented by somebody else. “History shows that the person who invented, Please Call Me is Ari Khan, who briefed MTN’s lawyers, etc, etc, etc, and that is the legal actual history of this patent.”
ALSO READ: Vodacom scores ConCourt win over Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate
MTN first
Khan, a former lead data consultant at MTN, filed his application with the Patent Office by Spoor & Fisher on 22 January 2001.
Kahn and MTN were granted their patent by the Patent Office on 22 January 2001, and MTN sent its first Please Call Me text the next day, on 23 January 2001.
The Citizen contacted Makate’s lawyers for comment on Tuesday. However, there was no response at the time of publication.
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