A BUSINESSMAN who claims to have helped Mr. Nkosana Makete fight his battle for the establishment of Please Call Me with Vodacom in court has filed a defamation case against him.
This comes after Makete, who won his and Vodacom’s last year, called him a criminal.
Mr. Errol Elsdon, the former Director of the company Black Rock Mining Ltd revealed yesterday that he has instructed his lawyers to file a defamation case against Makete following the distribution of statements describing him as a criminal on June 7 this year.
This happened after Makete and Vodacom’s 18-year-long court battle came to an end late last year, when they agreed to make an out-of-court settlement of between R500 million and R1 billion.
All this talk is about the fact that Makete, who was a trainee accountant, came up with the idea for Vodacom to start Please Call Me which would allow their customers who do not have airtime to send a Please Call Me message.
After Vodacom failed to compensate him satisfactorily, he took it to court.
While this case continued in the courts, the Constitutional Court ended up in favor of Makete saying that Vodacom did not pay him the right amount. Vodacom put R47 million on the table, which Makete rejected with both feet, saying it wasn’t enough, as he finally agreed to the sum set by Vodacom late last year.
The dispute that is currently in court is between Makete and Black Rock Mining, who claim that they were the ones providing the money for the payment of the costs of the case and made an agreement in 2011/2013 that if he won the case, the company will receive 40% of the money it will receive.
Makete said this agreement reeks of corruption and deception.