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Vodacom Request to Appeal ‘Please Call Me’ Ruling Heads to Court

Vodacom Request to Appeal ‘Please Call Me’ Ruling Heads to Court
South Africa’s top court will hear an application from Vodacom Group Ltd. for leave to appeal a ruling that it pay a former employee billions of rands in compensation for an idea he proposed more than two decades ago.

The Constitutional Court issued a directive that it will hear Vodacom’s application to challenge a ruling in the so-called “Please Call Me” matter that Kenneth Makate is entitled to compensation ranging between 29 billion rand ($1.64 billion) and 63 billion rand, the mobile operator said in a statement on Tuesday.

The case has gone back and forth for many years as Vodacom and Makate wrangle over compensation for the call-back service idea he proposed to the company’s product-development team when he worked in its finance division in the 2000s.

That amount determined by the Supreme Court of Appeal would have “devastating consequences” for the mobile-network operator, its employees and its investors, Johannesburg-based Vodacom said in papers filed in the Constitutional Court in February.

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