Former Vodacom employee Nkosana Makate and the mobile network service have been in a court battle over the invention of the Please Call Me function for more than 10 years.
While working as a 24-year-old junior accountant at the company in 2000‚ Makate approached his supervisor with the idea of creating a service that would allow users to contact people without using airtime.
Please Call Me is a tool used by most South African mobile service providers that allows consumers to send a fixed text free of charge.
Vodacom loved the idea and Makate was promised his share of the fortune when the service kicked off in 2001.
An initial development plan for Please Call Me in 2001 said Vodacom could make US$23m a day from the service.
The legal battle began when Makate took the matter to the high court in 2008 after writing letters to Vodacom in 2007.
Here's a timeline of the battle between the network giant and Makate.
The matter is heard in the South Gauteng High Court in 2013
Makate filed a civil case against Vodacom at the South Gauteng High Court to sue for compensation for the Please Call Me concept.
According to court proceedings‚ the Please Call Me idea was submitted by Makate's then boss Phillip Geissler‚ who told Makate in an oral agreement that he would negotiate remuneration with the company.
Initially Vodacom denied Makate's claims that he had invented Please Call Me and that the company had promised to compensate him.
Case dismissed
In July 2014‚ the High Court dismissed Makate's lawsuit with costs and his appeal was denied by the South Gauteng High Court in December.
Makate vowed that this was not the end of the battle as he intended to take the case to the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court‚ with his lawyers seeking R650m in damages. Makate heads to the Constitutional Court
In April 2015‚ Makate filed papers with the court in a bid to get Vodacom to pay him his share of the Please Call Me profits.
This after the Supreme Court of Appeal had rejected his leave for appeal on the grounds that he had "no reasonable prospects of success"...