Concourt sends Vodacom Please Call Me case back to SCA

By Johnathan Paoli

The Constitutional Court has ruled that the matter between Vodacom and “Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate must return to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) for a fresh hearing by a new panel of judges, in the latest twist in the decades-long legal battle.

The decision, delivered by Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga in his final judgment on the Constitutional Court bench, overturns the SCA’s 2024 ruling that ordered Vodacom to compensate Makate between 5% and 7.5% of the revenue generated by the popular callback service over 18 years.

“Without deciding them, purely to demonstrate the Supreme Court of Appeals’ failure to comply with the duty of proper consideration, we cannot suddenly be at large, as the legal language says, to determine those factual issues. The matter must be remitted to the Supreme Court of Appeal for a proper determination of the appeal, and that