The High Court in Pretoria has ordered Vodacom to play open cards and disclose financial records relating to the Please Call Me service including, among other things, the revenue it has generated for the telecommunications giant.
On Monday 29 June, Judge Jody Kollapen gave Vodacom 21 days to hand over financial records to Makate relating to the underlying revenue that Please Call Me has generated for the company between 1997 and 2000, and information about the growth of its customer numbers and its mobile services spending as a result of launching the service.
“It appears, in the context of the relief sought perfectly compatible in principle for the provisions of rule 53 to live alongside those of rule 35 , and while in practice, the provisions of rule 35 are generally activated once all the affidavits are in, there is no bar to its use at an early stage of the proceedings especially where the issues in dispute can be reasonably contemplated or are clearly defined as is the case in these proceedings,” Kollapen wrote in his judgment.
On 9 January 2019, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub offered Makate R47-million in compensation for the Please Call Me service. Joosub’s involvement in settlement talks is part of the Constitutional Court’s order that enabled him to arbitrate negotiations after a deadlock on compensation materialised.