Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Citizens overcome retail giants
SA rallies behind entrepreneurs
RECENT victories of wronged individuals against massive brands like Momentum, Vodacom and Woolworths have given South Africans an appetite for “David and Goliath” stories of average people triumphing over corporate greed.
Former Vodacom employee Nkosana Makate has made headlines for demanding that the corporate pay him out for inventing their Please Call Me message service.
In 2016, the Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom to negotiate an appropriate amount to pay Makate. They have reportedly offered him R49 million, according to Chris Schoeman, one of Makate’s former litigation funders, which he has thus far rejected.
South Africans have rallied behind Makate on social media, threatening to protest outside Vodacom shops and port their cell numbers to other service providers if the company does not pay up. He is expected to take Vodacom back to court to challenge them for a bigger payout. Overwhelming social media pressure was also instrumental in getting insurance giant Momentum to pay out the life insurance policy of a man who was shot dead during a hijacking in KwaZulu-Natal.
Momentum initially refused to pay out the R2.4m, claiming that the victim, Nathan Ganas, had failed to disclose his high blood-sugar level before he was shot and killed.
The ombudsman for long-term insurance examined the case and found in Momentum’s favour. However, the company suffered such monumental backlash over social media that they reversed their decision and paid out the policy to Ganas’s widow. This victory extended beyond the Ganas’s case, as Momentum actually adjusted its claims guidelines for the future.
“We have taken the criticism to heart,” the company stated. “We have created a solution that will pay an amount equal to the death benefit (limited to a maximum of R3m) in the case of violent crime, regardless of previous medical history. This will apply to all existing, as well as future, life-cover clients.”
Retail giant Woolworths has faced multiple rounds of trial by social media as entrepreneurs have called out the corporate for blatantly copying their designs. One of the early small businesses to take on Woolworths was Frankie’s soft drinks. Woolworths was forced to take their products off the shelves in 2012 after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that their cold drink range was a direct imitation of Frankie’s.
In a more recent blow to the Woolworths brand, local mom and business owner Shannon McLaughlin called the retailer out for copying her Ubuntu Baba baby carrier design. The baby carrier was not patented, so McLaughlin could not sue for intellectual property theft – but the outrage from customers over social media was enough to make Woolworths publicly apologise and recall all the products.
The latest shots fired against Woolworths come from another local entrepreneur whose product has potentially been copied by the retail giant – but manufactured overseas and sold at a much lower price. Taleszia Pillay is the owner of Happy Earth People, and produces a locally made pasta made from red lentils and chickpeas. After Pillay’s product began gaining market traction, Woolworths brought out an identical product. Pillay doesn’t have a copyright complaint against Woolworths, but is calling them out for saying they support local, then choosing to have it made in Italy.
In a rural town in the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape, locals have taken on the government and an international mining giant in order to protect their land against titanium mining. The people of Xolobeni took their battle to court in order to prevent the Department of Mineral Resources from granting mining rights to Australian company Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources.
In a landmark judgment in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Judge Annali Basson ruled that the Xolobeni residents had the right to decide what happens on their land, and that the minister of Mineral Resources would have to get full and formal consent from them.