The Constitutional Court has upheld Vodacom’s latest appeal in the Please Call Me case.
The case, which has been in and out of the courts for two decades now, will now be referred to a new panel of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Vodacom will now review the judgment in full and take the appropriate next steps.
Kenneth Makata is claiming compensation for the Please Call Me service that Vodacom launched in 2001, and the case has been tied up as the parties cannot agree on what that compensation should be.
In 2016, the Constitutional Court ordered that Vodacom make a reasonable offer, which its CEO set at R47-million.
Makate rejected this determination and brought an application to the Gauteng Division of the High Court to have it judicially reviewed and set aside – which it did in February 2022, order the CEO to reconsider.
Vodacom appealed that order, which the SCA did not uphold. Vodacom then appealed to the Constitutional Court, which has not referred the matter back to the SCA.