Nkosana Makate reached a settlement with Vodacom over the Please Call Me feature.
The man who claims to have bankrolled Nkosana Makate's landmark "Please Call Me" litigation against Vodacom has hit back, hard, announcing defamation proceedings against Makate and vowing to expose, in open court, the full financial architecture behind one of South Africa's most celebrated corporate battles.
Errol Elsdon, a businessman and former director of Black Rock Mining Ltd, confirmed on Wednesday that he has instructed his attorneys to institute defamation action against Makate, following statements published on June 7, 2026, in which Elsdon says he was falsely portrayed as a fraudster.
"I was willing to be called many things when I agreed to fund this case," Elsdon said in a press statement. "A criminal was never one of them. I will not be branded a criminal for honouring a contract, and I will answer that accusation where it belongs: in court."
The "Please Call Me" saga has long been framed as the story of a lone underdog taking on a telecoms giant, Makate, a former Vodacom employee who claims he invented the service without compensation, eventually securing a settlement reported at one billion rand. But Elsdon's statement sharply contests that narrative.
