Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has apologised for an altercation she had with an SABC news crew who were filming an ANC provincial rally in the Eastern Cape on Saturday.
Browsing: Nkosana Makate
The saga has also sparked a fierce debate about whether Makate or Vodacom’s rival MTN is the true inventor of the “please call me” service.
In the podcast this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg unpack the soap opera that is the fight between Vodacom and its former employee, Nkosana Makate, over the “please call me” service.
It’s now well known that MTN South Africa patented a “please call me”-type service in the early 2000s, beating rival Vodacom to the punch.
Vodacom cannot pay the “inventor” of the “please call me” service, Nkosana Makate, more money because the outcome of the deadlock-breaking mechanism is legally binding, the company said on Friday.
Vodacom offered its former employee, Nkosana Makate, R49-million to settle the “please call me” dispute, his former “litigation funder”, Chris Schoeman, said in a radio interview on Thursday.
Vodacom has drawn a line in the sand over demands from protesters that the telecommunications operator pays the “inventor” of its “please call me” service R70-billion.
A small group of protesters descended on Vodacom’s head office on Thursday to demand Vodacom pays Nkosana Makate, the “inventor” of the “please call me service”, R70-billion.
With Vodacom’s head office in Johannesburg set to be the site of protest action on Thursday by people supporting the operator’s ex-employee, Nkosana Makate, hot-headed politicians would be well advised to avoid inflaming tensions for political gain.
Communications minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams appears to have deleted a tweet in which she told Vodacom to “shut up”, accusing the mobile operator of a “poor PR stunt” related to its “settlement” with former employee Nkosana Makate.