Day of reckoning looms in high-stakes cellphone service case
NKOSANA Makate-Nhlapho is a poster boy for the ordinary person’s struggle against the might of big business.
But whereas Vodacom is the Goliath in this battle, MakateNhlapho is no David.
The 41-year-old family man has waged a 12-year battle against the cellphone company in the “Please Call Me” case.
After years of failed attempts to win recognition and compensation, he started a lawsuit against Vodacom in 2008, claiming he was the brains behind the lucrative return-call concept.
When he walked into the High Court in Johannesburg on July 14 for the start of the trial, he had a legal army — including two senior intellectual property advocates — behind him.
And the case is not costing him a cent, thanks to champerty, a legal process that allows for the purchase of someone’s civil claim in return for a portion of the proceeds.
It has only been allowed in South Africa since 2004 following a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal.
When Makate-Nhlapho’s claim was bought by Sterling Rand Litigation Fund in 2010, he had exhausted his savings, tapped into his bond and cancelled family holidays for several years.
Sterling is funding the entire lawsuit in exchange for a 40% cut of the claim in the event of success. It has so far spent about R5million on Makate-Nhlapo’s legal fees and an advance of R500 000 to settle his outstanding legal debts, among other things.
On the day Vodacom launched the Please Call Me service, it registered 140 000 messages, and today roughly 38 million Please Call Me messages are sent daily.
Sterling calculates that Vodacom may have made as much as R45-billion from the service since it launched. MakateNhlapho believes he is entitled to at least 15%.
Closing argument in the civil action is due to be heard on Tuesday. His legal team includes senior counsel Cedrick Puckrin and Reinard Michau, who have more than 50 years’ experience in intellectual property law between them.
Makate-Nhlapho, in an interview this week, said he joined Vodacom after matric when he was selected for a programme to train young accountants. He resigned in 2003 to pursue his lawsuit and is now a director at the South African Local Government Association.
He said he feared from the outset that Vodacom’s legal strategy would include trying to drown him in paperwork, possibly in the hope that he would abandon the case.
But he carried on and signed up for yoga and transcendental meditation to help him cope.
Although nothing could have prepared him for the stress of this case, growing up in poverty in Katlehong on Johannesburg’s East Rand helped, he said. His wife, Rebecca, a paediatrician, had to wait longer than necessary to get her dream home because most of their money had been spent on the case.
Earlier this year, he watched as the man who had been his boss at Vodacom, former CEO Allan Knot-Craig, tripped himself up in court. After claiming to have been the brains behind the Please Call Me concept in his autobiography, Second is Nothing, Knott-Craig admitted during testimony that it was Makate-Nhlapho’s idea.
Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman said it was a very complex case, adding that the company would not comment so as to avoid prejudicing the outcome of the trial.
Sterling calculates that Vodacom may have made as much as R45-billion from the service since it launched