Nkosana Makate, inventor of the 'Please Call Me' service, says he had to fund his fight against Vodacom because Black Rock Mining, which agreed to bankroll the case, never existed and had no money.
Makate says Black Rock Mining, the British Virgin Islands-registered company that agreed to fund his legal battle, was never a real company – it had no assets, never traded and lacked the means to honour the funding agreement it signed.
This is contained in the latest court action around a case that started in 2008 when Makate first approached the courts to force Vodacom to pay him for the Please Call Me (PCM) invention. That High Court found that Makate had a valid claim except he contracted with the wrong person, thereby dismissing his claim.
By 2011, Makate had signed a funding agreement with the now deceased Chris Schoeman, who inked it “in his capacity as authorised representative of a company to be nominated”.
That company turned out to be Black Rock Mining, represented by Errol Elsdon, although various court reports refer to him variously as a director or former director. In his pleadings, Makate says Elsdon is the “directing mind” of the company.
Makate was finally successful in his bid to force Vodacom to the negotiating table in 2016, when the Constitutional Court ordered the two parties to agree on a settlement.
Black Rock in the dock
Makate argues that Black Rock was never a company because it had no assets, never traded, didn’t submit financial statements in the British Virgin Islands and was at “a real risk of being dissolved, deregistered or struck off the BVI company registry”. It had no financial books, and didn’t register as an “external company” or have a local address in terms of the Companies Act, he argues.
Black Rock, Makate says, falsely represented that it had the financial means, legal standing and capacity to fund his litigation and indemnify him against adverse costs. He says the company was not in the business of litigation funding, had no assets, never traded and lacked the means to perform under the agreement.
Elsdon has previously stated that Black Rock was in the business of litigation funding, contained in an affidavit in support of Black Rock’s unsuccessful application late last year to have the award frozen so he could secure his claimed share of 40% of the confidential settlement.
“My business interests include litigation funding, in which I have been involved in through various entities for many years,” says Elsdon.
No chance
Had the inventor known that Black Rock was incapable of providing the funding, he would never have signed the agreement. This deal, which he says is impugned because Black Rock was deregistered, provided no money, and the contract was fraudulent in any event, caused him material harm.
“He [Makate] has had to bear the costs of the entire PCM litigation since at least January 2015 and the concomitant risk of adverse legal costs orders,” the papers say. It is not known how much the litigation cost.
Makate adds: “Black Rock’s financial means, legal standing and financial and administrative management were critical to provide the PCM litigation funding.” This, he says, is because he “did not have the financial means to fund the PCM litigation and to meet any adverse cost orders against him”.
The inventor also states that Black Rock didn’t deposit “sufficient funds as reasonably required” to fund the litigation within 10 days of signing the funding agreement and repeats his claim that Black Rock never paid R4 million. He says Black Rock only ever contributed about R8 000 towards his legal costs.
Black Rock Mining director Errol Elsdon also previously stated that about R500 000 was initially raised and paid through Makate’s attorneys to fund the litigation, with total funding later reaching about R4.39 million.
“Had it not been for my efforts and the funding raised in terms of the funding agreement, Mr Makate’s litigation against Vodacom would never have progressed, and there would have been no settlement,” says Elsdon in a November 2025 affidavit.
Elsdon hits back
Elsdon said in a press release issued last week that he “will not be branded a criminal for honouring a contract,” in response to Makate’s statements that Elsdon’s claim – through Black Rock Mining – to 40% of the inventor’s confidential settlement with Vodacom is “fraudulent”.
“Much has been said about how the ‘Please Call Me’ matter ended, and about Makate as the ‘lone underdog’ who took on a corporate giant. Far less has been said about how the claim began: unfunded, untested and stalled, until someone was prepared to pay for it and to carry the risk of losing the funding if the case failed,” says Elsdon.
“I was willing to be called many things when I agreed to fund this case. 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,” he adds.
Elsdon adds: “I do not begrudge Makate a cent of his success… But it did not come from nowhere. It came from a reworked case, a legal team, and money put up by people who were prepared to lose every cent of it.”
Branding the man who funded the legal action as a fraudster “is the act of someone who would rather rewrite the story than honour the agreement that made it possible,” says Elsdon.
Elsdon’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. However, Sinenhlanhla Mnguni of SN Mnguni Inc, Black Rock’s attorney, previously told ITWeb the firm has instructions to defend Makate’s claims that Black Rock only existed on paper “vigorously as they remain steadfast in the assertion that they have a valid claim against Mr Makate emanating from the funding agreement concluded between the parties”.
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