Nkosana Makate won an important Constitution Court battle against Vodacom, when the highest court in the land ruled the mobile operator now has to pay him for his ‘Please Call Me’ idea.
In court documents released today as part of the judgment, it was also revealed that then-CEO Alan Knott-Craig was a terrible defendant.
Knott-Craig, on several occasions and even in his autobiography, claimed responsibility for the ‘Please Call Me’ system’s creation and attempted to discredit Makate, which the Constitution Court found to be untrue.
Under point 176 of the 93-page judgement, the court noted that there are two people in this court case that know the full history of the events that transpired – Knott-Craig, and head of product development at the time, Philip Geissler.
“At least two people know the true story and they are Mr Geissler and Mr Knott-Craig. Of these two, Mr Geissler did not give evidence and Mr Knott-Craig was a poor, and in some respects plainly dishonest, witness,” the court said.
Not the first time
But this is not the first time that a court has called into question the integrity of Knott-Craig.
When the case progressed the High Court last year, he “performed dismally as a witness.”
The ConCourt cited filed papers in its judgement, stating that “the trial Court found no difficulty in rejecting his evidence. The Court’s analysis of his evidence was rightly scathing. He was willing to lie about matters which were documented in the records of Vodacom.”
“For example, he arrogated to himself, in his autobiography, the idea on which the “Please Call Me” service was based, despite the fact that in February 2001 Mr Geissler had sent out an email to all members of staff, informing them about the launch of the service and acknowledging the applicant (Makate) as the author of the idea.”
The Constitutional Court also ruled that the trial Court erred in examining some evidence.
“It ignores one of the more disgraceful aspects of this case namely that, after the institution of this action, Mr Knott-Craig published his autobiography and falsely claimed credit for the “Please Call Me” idea.”
