(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s top court will hear an application from Vodacom Group Ltd. for leave to appeal a ruling that it pay a former employee billions of rands in compensation for an idea he proposed more than two decades ago.
The Constitutional Court issued a directive that it will hear Vodacom’s application to challenge a ruling in the so-called “Please Call Me” matter that Kenneth Makate is entitled to compensation ranging between 29 billion rand ($1.64 billion) and 63 billion rand, the mobile operator said in a statement on Tuesday.
The case has gone back and forth for many years as Vodacom and Makate wrangle over compensation for the call-back service idea he proposed to the company’s product-development team when he worked in its finance division in the 2000s.
That amount determined by the Supreme Court of Appeal would have “devastating consequences” for the mobile-network operator, its employees and its investors, Johannesburg-based Vodacom said in papers filed in the Constitutional Court in February.
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