The only funding they provided was about R8 000 in 2014, says Makate. Now they want a big chunk of his reported R700m payout. From Moneyweb.
‘Extortionists’ are trying to claim 40% of Kenneth Makate’s expected payout of R700 million from Vodacom, says the ‘Please Call Me’ inventor.
Nearly 25 years after the launch of the Please Call Me service – allowing users to send a free SMS message requesting someone to call them back when they have no airtime – Makate is going back to court on an urgent basis to defend a claim by Black Rock Mining (BRM), a private UK-based company, that it is entitled to 40% of his payout from Vodacom.
Read:
How Nkosana Makate won the Please Call Me case [Apr 2016]
Vodacom in ‘Please Call Me’ out-of-court settlement with Makate [Nov 2025]
Vodacom buries Makate settlement figure, seen as closer to R700m [Nov 2025]
Makate has spent much of the past two decades in a court battle with Vodacom seeking fair compensation for his invention.
Now that Vodacom and Makate’s legal team have settled at a reported R700 million – though the exact figure is the subject of a confidentiality agreement – he now finds himself having to return to court to defend his winnings.
Last week, BRM filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court, arguing that Makate had breached an agreement with it by settling with Vodacom on 4 November 2025 without written consent. Based on the estimated R700 million settlement, BRM’s claim comes to about R280 million (40%) plus interest.
BRM also wants an interim interdict barring Vodacom from paying Makate until the matter is settled.
Makate’s response tells a different, and quite alarming, story. He wants BRM to front up security for his legal costs, fearing BRM has no assets in SA or elsewhere in the world.
The agreement
In papers before the Joburg High Court, he spells out his interactions with BRM and an alleged 15-year-old agreement whereby the company would fund his legal fees for a percentage of his winnings.
Listen/read: Litigation funding as an alternative investment
Makate explains that he previously won a court order blocking BRM’s interference in his negotiations with Vodacom.
He entered into a funding agreement with the late Christiaan Schoeman, formerly a director of Raining Men Trade. Schoeman nominated BRM as the funding entity, then represented by director Errol Elsdon.
BRM was in the process of provisional deregistration as a company and would not have been in a position to provide funding, says Makate’s court papers.
In his affidavit before the court, Elsdon claims he, Schoeman and Tracey Roscher raised an initial amount of R500 000 and paid it to Makate’s attorneys in 2011. This was allegedly followed by a further payment of R2.4 million to cover legal expenses.
This is not what happened, says Makate. All he got was a paltry R7 853 in 2014 after the initial payment in 2011, and this was directly from Schoeman.
Accusations
“I have found the three of them [Schoeman, Elsdon and his girlfriend Roscher] to be dishonest and fraudsters. An arbitrator shared my views. The inaccuracies and lack of candour in the affidavit of Elsdon shows that he has not changed his ways.”
Elsdon and Schoeman then allegedly misrepresented that the funder had changed from BRM to Raining Men, but Makate says his signature was forged on that agreement.
Read: ConCourt upholds Vodacom please call me appeal
In 2016, when the Constitutional Court found that Vodacom was bound by a verbal agreement with Makate and ordered it to enter good faith negotiations over a settlement, Schoeman and Elsdon brought an urgent application under Raining Men that only it and Schoeman were entitled to negotiate with Vodacom.
Because Makate’s signature on the Raining Men agreement had been forged, this, he says, was a fraud on the court.
While BRM was in provisional deregistration, it sold a portion of its shares to a Luxembourg entity called Simba Capital.
“Regrettably, the proceeds of that sale were not used to fund my litigation and pay my legal team but, instead, the majority of the funds were diverted to the bank accounts of Schoeman and Elsdon in Cyprus. Their behaviour is deplorable,” deposes Makate.
BRM’s attempt to revive itself
In 2019, when Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub made an offer of R47 million for ‘Please Call Me’, efforts were made to resuscitate the now deregistered BRM in the British Virgin Islands.
BRM’s self-created urgency has to be weighed against the lack of urgency shown in the intervening six years, says Makate.
Under arbitration, it was found that BRM, not Raining Men, was the properly nominated company, and that the nomination of Raining Men was fraudulent because Makate’s signature had been forged.
What is in dispute is whether the agreement with BRM is valid.
Schoeman had acknowledged that the funding agreement had been validly cancelled in 2015 – but Elsdon had a different view.
Support
Makate says he has been able to pursue his case against Vodacom, not because of assistance from BRM, but due to the support of his legal team over the last 10 years and some bank credit. Makate is represented by Pretoria attorneys Stemela & Lubbe.
The court costs thus far have been massive.
Vodacom’s bill of costs for a November 2024 Constitutional Court hearing alone (one of more than half a dozen) amounted to R12 million.
Read: Makate’s court victory against Vodacom is also a victory for litigation funding [Feb 2024]
BRM could have indemnified Makate against this but never did. “It cannot. It owns nothing,” says Makate’s affidavit.
“I challenge Mr Elsdon on behalf of [BRM] to demonstrate a single payment that [it] has made in contributing to this litigation in the last 14 years,” adds Makate.
BRM’s claim has in any event prescribed (run out of time), says the ‘Please Call Me’ inventor, and Elsdon has waived any rights it may have against Makate.
